Triage: Review By Fallenlords

Triage is a strange film in certain respects though I found it very intriguing. The premise of the story to me was how people cope with things that are shocking. For example we have a Doctor who shoots his patients if they have no hope of survival, probably one of the only Doctors that has to clean his own gun.

The general narrative is about a couple of photo journalists going to Kurdistan in the late 80's to cover the fighting. When the two get separated, and only one returns home, the story slowly pieces together the events that happened. Colin Farrell plays an excellent part as Mark Walsh the returning journalist. In a series of flashbacks and events, the psychological trauma of what he has been through slowly starts to manifest. Concerned about his welfare his wife (Paz Vega) calls in her estranged grandfather who is a psychiatrist to help Mark.

Her grandfather Joaquín Morales (Christopher Lee) treated patients involved with Spanish Civil War, according to his granddaughter these were men who were war-criminals and his treatment of them absolved/purified them of their crimes. Here it leads us to a complex argument, even men on the winning side can do things which most people would find deplorable during war time.

Christopher Lee is old school to me, I just love to see him in films and this is no exception. The combination of him and Farrell makes interesting viewing. It is obvious something has happened in Kurdistan which is having an effect on Mark (Farrell). But getting to the source of the problem is no mean feat. These two characters play off each other excellently with a profound sense of subtlety coming from Lee. Colin Farrell is superb as well I have to say, the majority of the film focuses on him and he keeps your attention with a lot of scenes that are purely him and the camera.

As I say this film is intriguing, you know something more happened in Kurdistan to Mark than his explanation of 'falling in a river' caused his injuries. You don't know what has happened to his friend and colleague, which is compounded by the fact his friends wife is due to give birth at any moment. There is a sense of dread and foreboding, in a sense you don't know if you want to find out what has happened.

The ending may not impress some people, I found it acceptable but not what I would have liked to have seen. This is perhaps the part that lets down an otherwise excellent film. But there are so may plus points like Branko Djuric as Dr. Talzani who shines as this Doctor caught between saving patients and killing them, that I can forgive the ending to an extent.