{"id":850103,"date":"2026-09-16T19:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T19:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/850103\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T19:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T19:22:11","slug":"kenneth-branagh-and-reed-van-dyk-on-the-war-drama-atonement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/850103\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenneth Branagh and Reed Van Dyk on the War Drama ‘Atonement’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tReed Van Dyk<\/a>\u2018s first feature film \u201cAtonement<\/a>\u201d explores the aftermath of an Iraq War tragedy. The film is inspired by the 2012 New Yorker article by Dexter Filkins. <\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking ahead of the film\u2019s Toronto Film Festival premiere, Van Dyk recalls coming across the article many years ago. He says, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have been able to maybe name then what it was that drew me to it. But in making it, I can say that, to me, there was something profoundly moving about all of these different sides of a war sitting down together and almost in spite of themselves. It feels like they\u2019re reaching for each other, which to me was a very human and awkward and beautiful thing to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHis is a war drama that examines themes of trauma, PTSD, family tragedy and, ultimately, forgiveness. Reflecting on his initial reaction to the article, Van Dyk says that he was particularly interested in exploring the journey people take after war.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAtonement<\/a>\u201d stars Boyd Holbrook, \u201cSuccession\u2019s\u201d Hiam Abbass and Kenneth Branagh<\/a>. It follows the Khachaturian family, who are displaced from their home by U.S. military action during the early days of the Iraq War. They find refuge with relatives, gathering three generations together under one roof. However, when another bombing erupts nearby, they decide to return to their home across the city. As they navigate the war-torn streets of Baghdad, the family is caught in a firefight between U.S. Marines and insurgents. A Marine\u2019s split-second decision devastates the family: Mariam (Abbass) waves her white handkerchief out the window to signal that they\u2019re civilians who have come in peace, but it\u2019s too late. Her husband and two adult sons step out of the car, and in an instant, they are lying dead in the street.<\/p>\n

\n\tYears later, Lou D\u2019Alessandro (Holbrook), suffering from PTSD, reaches out to Michael Reid (Branagh), a fictionalized version of Filkins to help coordinate a meeting between him and the surviving family members, in the hopes of easing his pain.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere was this trio of characters who I was fascinated by, and so it was an opportunity to explore them, their lives and how they were processing this very crazy incident in particular, but a war at large,\u201d Van Dyk explains.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat meeting scene is where he really sends a message of reflection and forgiveness.<\/p>\n

\n\tVan Dyk shot the film in order which he says was helpful when it came to shooting that key scene. \u201cEveryone had these lived experiences of that initial tragedy,\u201d he explains. \u201cOn the day we filmed the sit-down scene, the emotion was just spilling out of everyone. I suppose that\u2019s a question that lingers in your mind \u2014 will everyone be ready to meet the moment of this very challenging scene that I\u2019ve lived with for so long?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe emotions were spilling out of everyone,\u201c he recalls. \u201cWe stopped our rehearsal and started shooting it. I\u2019ll say that the crew and I became an audience. I was deeply moved over and over again by the emotional commitment that everyone had in that scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor his part, Branagh says he reached out to Filkins, who he describes as \u201ca pragmatic, practical man\u201d who is \u201chighly intelligent.\u201d That communication helped him understand both Filkins and the character he was playing. Branagh says, \u201cWhen I spoke to him about his impression of what happened in that small room when those two people met after a decade to discuss this unimaginable loss and inner confusion and suffering that they both felt in their very separate ways, I said, \u2018What was it like?\u2019 He said, \u2018I think it was the most intense experience I\u2019ve ever witnessed.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tVan Dyk adds, \u201cThat scene looms large as you\u2019re preparing the movie, but it had a kind of effortlessness in the playing of it and it was really beautiful to experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLooking back, Branagh says aside from speaking with Filkins, the film gave him a deeper appreciation of the courage required to listen and to hear and to stay in the room. He says, \u201cTo be in the middle of an undeniably difficult conversation or experience that benefits from consideration \u2014 not instant reaction.\u201d He went on to say, \u201cWe live in a world where we aren\u2019t tuned for that. We\u2019re tuned for instant reaction to sensory overload. This required the consideration of a slowly drawn \u2014 out and profound experience. It requires patience of the heart.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reed Van Dyk\u2018s first feature film \u201cAtonement\u201d explores the aftermath of an Iraq War tragedy. The film is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[359337,88,23418,206,352779,46686],"class_list":["post-850103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-atonement","tag-entertainment","tag-kenneth-branagh","tag-movies","tag-reed-van-dyk","tag-tiff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}