The life of wartime poet Siegfried Sassoon is coming to the big screen with the new film Benediction.
The film is from writer-director Terrance Davies who previously explored the life of poet Emily Dickinson in A Quiet Passion. His other acclaimed films include The House of Mirth, The Deep Blue Sea, Neon Bible and Sunset Song.
For his exploration of the life of Sassoon, Davies has tapped some top acting talent including Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi who play Sassoon at different points in his life. Ben Daniels, Gemma Jones, Sir Simon Russell Beale, Calam Lynch, Jeremy Irvine, Anton Lesser, Julian Sands, and Kate Phillips also appear.
Sassoon was a complex man who survived the horrors of fighting in the First World War and was decorated for his bravery but who became a vocal critic of the government’s continuation of the war when he returned from service.
His poetry was inspired by his experiences on the Western Front and he became one of the leading war poets of the era. Adored by members of the aristocracy as well as stars of London’s literary and stage world, he embarked on affairs with several men as he attempted to come to terms with his homosexuality.
At the same time, broken by the horror of war, he made his life’s journey a quest for salvation, trying to find it within the conformity of marriage and religion. His story is one of a troubled man in a fractured world searching for peace and self-acceptance, something which speaks as meaningfully to the modern world as it did then.
Take a look at the trailer, this film opens in Australia on 9th June.
OIP Staff
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