Canadian, Sniper
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After a harrowing experience in Afghanistan, an Army sniper returns home, but his journey back to civilian life is far from straightforward. The gripping story unfolds as he attempts to re-integrate into society, but it quickly becomes apparent that the trauma of war follows him far more persistently than he expected. The return to his family’s remote farm in the Northern countryside, intended to offer solace, instead acts as a stage for his personal battle with the invisible scars of war—Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Though it’s unclear whether this is his first or second return from the battlefield, the confusion is symbolic of the fragmented state of his mind. Time seems to loop on itself, disorienting him as he struggles to distinguish between past and present, reality and illusion. The man, whose life once revolved around precision and survival in the chaos of war, now finds himself grappling with an entirely different battle: the war inside his own head. Every step he takes, every action he makes, is accompanied by a crushing weight of fear and confusion.
The isolation of the farm, a place that should offer peace and healing, only intensifies his disquiet. The vast expanse of land around him becomes a mirror to his internal landscape, vast, empty, and uncertain. While he tries to move forward, hoping to reclaim a semblance of normalcy, the shadows of his past grow longer and more difficult to escape.
PTSD manifests in various ways, and for this soldier, it’s a haunting confusion where memories are distorted, and time loses its meaning. In one moment, he is convinced that a particular event has just occurred, only to realize hours later that it’s a memory from weeks ago. In other instances, his sense of reality becomes so warped that the line between the fantasies of his mind and the world around him becomes increasingly hard to discern. These psychological scars aren’t always visible to those around him, but they are deeply felt, like a constant undercurrent of tension that threatens to rise at any moment.
One of the soldier’s biggest challenges is containing the violent urges that occasionally surface. He was once trained to neutralize threats with efficiency and deadly precision. Now, in the quietude of civilian life, those instincts are at odds with his desire to build a peaceful existence. His struggle is not just against the trauma he’s faced but also against the person he has become—a man who no longer feels entirely in control of his own actions.
Compounding his turmoil is the mystery of his father’s disappearance. The soldier is unable to move forward without understanding what happened to the man who once guided him. The father, a figure of strength and authority in the soldier’s past, seems to have vanished into the same fog that clouds the soldier’s memories. This absence, combined with the soldier’s struggles, propels him toward a need for answers.
In the end, the story is a poignant meditation on the human cost of war, not just in terms of physical scars, but the emotional and psychological trauma that soldiers carry long after the battle has ended. The sniper’s quest for peace and understanding is a universal tale, reflecting the complex journey many veterans face when returning to a world that seems disconnected from their experiences. The soldier's internal struggle is a testament to the lingering effects of trauma, and his search for his father symbolizes a desire to reclaim the parts of himself that war has taken away.
Director: Michel Kandinsky
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