Who Narrates War? The Mercenaries Speak – Warheads

Warheads

Directed by Romuald Karmakar, D/F 1992, 179 min, English/German/French original with English subtitles

In what is presumably his most controversial film, Karmakar lets mercenaries speak – entirely without outside commentary. Followed by a discussion between the director and Verena Lueken on perspectives on war that have a deterrent effect, and how these can be dealt with in film.

Romuald Karmakar is director and screenwriter of numerous feature films and documentaries. Karmakar has earned critical praise for his attention to the imperfections of society in modern history, especially his focus on the perpetrators of injustice and crime. His first feature film, The Deathmaker, garnered three German film awards. His documentary The Himmler Project was honored with the Grimme Award.

Verena Lueken studied sociology, film and German philology in Frankfurt am Main and dance in Philadelphia and New York. Since 1991, she has worked for the arts section of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, serving from 1995 to 2003 as a cultural correspondent based in New York.