Reality for POWs is captured on screen

To End All Wars is the true story of Ernest Gordon, a Second World War soldier, captured, along with most of his regiment, by the Japanese.

Gordon and his fellow prisoners are pushed to the edge of sanity by repeated beatings as well as malnutrition, and are forced to help the Japanese to build a railway through the thick jungles of Thailand.

The film focuses mainly on four of the prisoners: Major Campbell (Robert Carlyle); Dusty (Mark Strong); Lieutenant Reardon (Kiefer Sutherland); and Gordon (Ciaran McMenamin).

The four men respond very differently to the challenges put before them, and it’s these responses to their horrendous conditions that is the film’s focus.

Where other films have portrayed the horrors of war with graphic scenes of mass deaths, To End All Wars does the same thing from a much more human perspective.

Despite this, some of the scenes are still quite shocking, though none are overly graphic.

To End All Wars is not about one side beating another or about seeking revenge.

It’s about men forging friendships in a bid to survive the appalling realities of war and it’s about these men’s amazing ability to forgive the most barbaric acts.

Drama, 18. ***