Programmed May 2021

After the War

What happens when a war ends? For soldiers who return home from overseas, the fight is often far from finished. By turns candid, humane, surreal, and humorous, these explorations of the struggles that veterans face in rejoining society show the injuries, PTSD, and feelings of rootlessness, anger, and alienation that they must contend with. Though they may be set far from the explicit horrors of the front lines, these films—made in response to World War II ( The Men , The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit ), the Korean War ( Lilith ), and Vietnam ( Welcome Home Soldier Boys , The Last Detail )—are potent indictments of the ravages of war.