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Breckenridge Film Festival will dramatize war’s effect on women

Beth Groundwater
Special to the Daily
A scene from "The Bravest, The Boldest," a short drama film which will be shown at the Breckenridge Film Festival this fall.
Breckenridge Film Festival / Special to the Weekender |

Two intense short dramas that will appear in the Breckenridge Film Festival this fall poignantly illustrate war’s effect on women — both those who fulfill combat support roles and those left at home to worry about deployed loved ones.

In “Day One,” a divorced Afghan-American woman pushed out of her conservative community uses her one marketable skill as a bilingual immigrant to become an interpreter for U.S. forces. On her first day of deployment in Afghanistan, her unit raids the house of an enemy bomb maker. When the bombmaker’s wife goes into labor, the interpreter must deliver the breech child because the soldiers are not allowed to touch a local woman. The story is inspired by the interpreter with whom director/writer Henry Hughes served during his second tour of duty in 2009 as a captain in the U.S. Army. The cinematographer Kee Kyung applies his news cameraman experience to pull the viewer into the gripping action and never let go.

“The Bravest, the Boldest” shows that often those needing the most courage are those left at home. While bringing laundry up from the basement of her Harlem housing project, a mother of a deployed soldier encounters two uniformed soldiers in the elevator. With a wrench to the gut, both the viewer and mother realize that the soldiers are bringing news she can’t bear to accept. In every scene, the superb cast conveys the maximum amount of emotion with just the right amount of dialogue and acting — from the opening discussion in the car between the military chaplain and his partner to the bone-chilling ending in the laundry room. Bring tissues to this one.



Join the Breckenridge Film Festival on Sept. 17-20 to celebrate 35 years, featuring 50+ films, chances to meet filmmakers, panel discussions, parties, mingling and more. Learn more at http://www.breckfilmfest.com. Email info@breckfilmfest.com for information on film sponsors and supporting the Breckenridge Film Festival.


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