72SSIFF - 20/28 September 2024
Languages
Official
Sponsors
Media
Partner

Benediction

Terence Davies
UK      137 m.
Synopsis
Director
Pictures
Videos
Awards

Siegfried 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.

Director
Terence Davies (United Kingdom)
Screenplay
Terence Davies
Production
EMU Films (United Kingdom)
Mike Elliott
Sales
Bankside Films (United Kingdom)
Distribution
Festival Films (Spain)
Photography
Nicola Daley
Edition
Alex Mackie
Music
Benjamin Woodgates
Sound
Stephen Griffiths, Andy Shelley, Adam Fletcher, Andy Shelley, Adam Fletcher
Cast
Jack Lowden, Simon Russell Beale, Peter Capaldi, Jeremy Irvine, Kate Phillips, Gemma Jones
Format
DCP FOLLOWING DCI
Running Time
137 m.
Original language of the film
English
Country
UK
Official Sponsor:
Media Partner:
Official Collaborators:
Associated Institutions: