For King and Country

The boy had had enough. Turning his back on it all, he started walking home.

An army lawyer steps forward to defend a young Private charged with desertion during World War One. The prisoner’s devastating experience of the front changes the lawyer’s outlook on war. His sense of duty to the boy becomes a passionate compulsion to save him from the firing squad.

The noise of raging battle drifts into the dilapidated chateau which is the Private’s makeshift cell and courtroom. It is the simplicity of his decision to leave the front that robs the military machine of its self-justification and challenges the notion of justice.

In today’s world, where conflict is rife and ideas of duty and sacrifice carry such weight, the tale of this unlikely hero cannily exposes the impact of war past and present.