THE WAR ZONE

Actor Tim Roth's acclaimed directorial debut focuses on the proverbial Last Taboo and its blight upon a working-class family in Devon, where coastal fortifications left over from WWII bear mute witness to a shattering case of concealed incest. Not long after the mother goes to the hospital to bear her latest infant, 15-year-old son Tom glimpses his jovial father and his older sister Jessie. Together. Tom is confused by the mixed messages of Jessie's denials of the incident, plus her growing intimacy with a local boyfriend, and he retreats into moody silence, interpreted by his mother as simply adolescent jealousy over the new baby daughter. Then, in an isolated concrete bunker at the edge of a cold sea, Tom sees something which freezes his blood. Compare this chilling drama with our documentary feature selection ?Just, Melvin? and ponder over the truths and dire consequences that Roth and his ensemble wring from a topic too frequently oversimplified, sensationalized, and Jerry-Springerized. ?This is not a zero-sum accounting of good and evil, but a messy, elusive, painfully complex tragedy in which no one is driven by just one motive…I cannot imagine THE WAR ZONE being better directed by anyone else.? ? Roger Ebert.