Jan Ijäs is a director who uses narration to transcendent effect. Here, he plays with two Italian settings of importance in the two Great Wars of the 20th century: the monastery of Monte Cassino and the connection with Ludwig Wittgenstein; the village of San Pietro and the connection with John Huston.
Jan Ijäs is a director who’s been to IndieLisboa before, always bringing films that play with the relationship between what we see and what is narrated in ways that are always mesmerising. Ijäs’ trump card is the way he not only chooses topics but then develops and weaves them together, uncovering connections, creating tension and anticipation, always with a sense of humour that doesn’t go unnoticed. In this film, he takes two wars and two characters that he follows because of their connection to them. World War I and Ludwig Wittgenstein and World War II and John Huston, who was part of the American war effort, along with other renowned American directors — such as John Ford, William Wyler, Frank Capra and George Stevens.
