The Wars (1983)

Release Date:	1983, November 20
Directors:	Robin Phillips
Countries:	Canada, Germany
Production:	Nielsen-Ferns, Polyphon Film- und Fernsehgesellschaft mbH
Cast:	Timothy Webber, Margaret Tyzack, Clare Coulter, Paul Hubbard, Rupert Frazer, Richard McMillan, Jeff Hyslop, Shirley Douglas, James Kidnie, Kirsten Bishop, Alan Scarfe, Jackie Burroughs

Overview:

Robert Ross (Brent Carver) lives a protected adolescence in a well-off Toronto suburb. Secretive and withdrawn, he shares his thoughts only with his sister Rowena (Anne-Marie MacDonald) who is mentally disabled. He feels compassion for his weak and conventional father. He avoids any confrontation with his mother (Martha Henry), a dominating woman whose despondency at having given birth to a handicapped child has turned to bitterness. Rowena occupies a central position in Robert's existence of daydreams and make-believe. When she dies, Robert clashes openly with his family, and decides to take himself in hand. It's 1914. He enrolls in the Canadian army, and, after training in Alberta and Montreal, he finds himself in England and France. The war becomes another way for him to resolve his conflicts, his dramas, his passions--his wars.