THEATRE OF WAR

The Theatre of War recites the opening lines of Homer’s Iliad. As the epic begins in media res during the ninth year of the Trojan War, the film is likewise situated in the ninth year of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In antiquity, the Iliad was performed by rhapsodes over several days, often paced by the mnemonic rhythm of a lyre. In The Theatre of War, the opening stanza is similarly recited across three days and three contemporary theatres of conflict: a stage that served as a site of cultural resistance during the Siege of Sarajevo; a Ukrainian combat training facility previously used during the Bosnian War; and the supposed Tomb of Homer on the Greek island of Ios, overlooking the sea where the mythic clashes of the Iliad are said to have taken place.

Engaging the long-debated“Homeric Question,” the work references scholarly arguments that situate epic authorship within broader Balkan oral traditions - particularly those of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, where poetry is transmitted collectively rather than attributed to a single author. Against this, the film invokes the words of Ukrainian philosopher Rachel Bespaloff, who wrote on the eve of war in 1939:“we do not step into Homer’s world; we are already there.”

The recitations unfold across three languages - Bosnian, Ukrainian, and modern Greek, and draw from multiple historical translations of the Iliad. This layering produces a polyphonic structure that collapses geography and chronology, allowing the poem to reverberate across centuries, conflicts, and living histories, insisting on the persistence of war as both narrative and lived condition.

Commission:

The Mordant Family & ACMI Moving Image Commission for Young Artists

Crew:

Editor: Dominic Pearce

Composer: Marc Earley

Sound Engineering: Lachlan Cooper, Soundbyte

Cinematographer Channels 1 & 3: Alen Alilović

Sound Recording Channel 1 – Vanja Kurtović

Cast:

Channel 1-Radničko Kulturno Umjetničko Društvo ‘Proleter’ Sarajevo

Channel 2 – V. from S., Kharkiv Oblast

Channel 3 – Nia Ninoua & Ilias Marios Triantafyllos