Die Welt sehen

A film by Muriel and Delphine Coulin. In frensh with german subtitles.

At the end of their tour of duty in Afghanistan, two young military
women, Aurore and Marine, are given three days of »decompression
leave« with their unit at a five-star resort in cyprus. Here, among tourists,
they are trained to leave their violent memories behind. But it’s not that
easy to forget the war.

»What do you see when you go to war? Nothing. First of all, because the
moments of inaction at the camp are numerous. Secondly, because when
the fighting actually happens you don’t see a thing – you fight for your life.
Finally because everyone sees what happened from their own perspective,
which is a partial view of reality. During the decompression period, Aurore
and Marine participate in debriefing sessions that are going to make them
think differently about what they saw. The psychologists use virtual reality
video tools to recreate images in real time that correspond to the soldiers’
narrative. The goal is for the soldiers to distance themselves from their
painful memories through words and images. (…) It is impossible – and
perhaps not really desirable – to forget war, these wars, whether we have
participated from near or afar. We are reminded of this every day. The
Stopover addresses this issue: How can we manage to live despite having
experienced such a violent episode?«
Delphine and Muriel Coulin