Released directly on DVD, the new film by the great director Amos Gitaï is a fervent plea for peace, which is based on an original device. For his Why the warhe was in fact inspired by the correspondence between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud. Particularly when the first asks the second what could be done so that man one day stops succumbing to the need for violence.
Freud’s response, which will serve as the basis for his book Discontent in civilizationpublished in 1929, is not the most optimistic. Because the need to be aggressive and destructive being a source of pleasure, at regular intervals it always ends up expressing itself, he notes: civilization, which by definition represses this desire, therefore carries within itself the source of its own destruction.
The attacks of October 7
Micha Lescot plays Einstein, with Mathieu Amalric lending his features to Freud. The cast also includes Jérôme Kircher and Irène Jacob, who intervenes in choreographed moments, supported by music.
Of course, we are talking about the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 against Israeli civilians. Also shown are the associations which fought for the return of the hostages, the conflict in Gaza but also the war in Ukraine. The images of Irene Jacob watching the news channels, the evocation of a young soldier who should have been a student, all of this is poignant. And the film, as a whole, opens up dizzying questions in us, without showing a single scene of conflict.
“Why war” – 1:27 am – available on DVD.
