Coward Trailer: Lukas Dhont’s WWI Love Story Heads to UK Cinemas

What the Trailer Sets Up

“What shall we create here? Where shall we go?” runs MUBI’s pitch. The film is set at the height of the war in the shadows of the Belgian trenches. Pierre (Emmanuel Macchia) arrives at the front as a young soldier eager to find his footing in a world consumed by violence. Everything changes when he meets Francis (Valentin Campagne), whose plan to stage a theatre show on the front line opens up a world Pierre never knew existed. What starts as a brief escape from the trenches becomes a tender love story, and their stage becomes a sanctuary as the world burns around them. MUBI’s synopsis ends on the question at the heart of the film: when the world demands violence, is walking away the truest act of bravery?

Macchia and Campagne shared the Best Actor prize at Cannes in May, and Belgium has chosen Coward as its entry for Best International Feature at the 99th Academy Awards. Dhont wrote the film with his regular collaborator Angelo Tijssens. Several of his usual team are back too: cinematographer Frank van den Eeden, composer Valentin Hadjadj, editor Alain Dessauvage and producer Michiel Dhont. Jef Jacobs and Willem De Schryver co-star.