Presented in 2022 in Un Certain Regard as the opening film is a war story the film I AM YOUR FATHER (FATHER AND SOLDIER) by Mathieu VADEPIED is presented to the public in Italy.

The incipit takes us into 1920 near Verdun in France where soldiers dig into the ground extracting human remains. The film begins with heavy music, and this already says a lot about the ending!

1917 Senegal a herd of oxen led by local nomads return to the village at dawn, hiding to avoid being forcibly drafted. But you don't run away from French soldiers to go and fight a war in Europe!

And so father and son find themselves fighting and above all losing their lives in Europe.

The spirit of conservation leads the father to spare his son's life and vice versa. After a bloody battle, the two try to recover the body of fellow villager Adame who was shot to death.

Father And Soldier is full of bitter truths – about the futility of seeking valor on the battlefield, about the impossibility of protecting our children from the realities of the world – and Omar Sy is beautifully tired like the father worried about his son. The historical events that inspired Father And Soldier prove more compelling than Vadepied's treatment of them.

The film closes mourning the soldiers who died because the French military decided its colonial subjects were expendable. Father And Soldier can falter, but that sad fact still stings.

In the end credits we learn that the remains of the Unknown Soldier preserved in the Parisian Arc de Triomphe come from the battlefields of Verdun where the story of I'M YOUR FATHER which is the title with which the French film that can be considered a standard-bearer of the horror that happens today in Ukraine is released in Italian cinemas.