Benediction

The protagonist of the new film by acclaimed filmmaker Terence Davies is Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967), an English war hero and poet whose texts describing the horrors of the First World War are among the most iconic of his time. Instead of a traditional biography, Davies brings Sassoon's post-war stages and relationships to life in his perfectly mastered, restrainedly fragmentary and sublimely beautiful style. Benediction is a depiction of the search for salvation, the trauma and guilt created by the war, and life as a gay man in the social circles of London in the 1920s and 30s.

Jack Lowden is charming as the young Siegfried, while Peter Capaldi, known for Doctor Who, interprets the aged and embittered Sassoon.

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