Adapted from the hugely acclaimed, best-selling novel by Marc Dugain, writer-director Francois Duperyon's The Officer's Ward is an insightful, honest and profoundly moving meditation on love, loss, and the physical and mental scars inflicted by the horror of war. Screened in competition at the 2001 Cannes Film festival, The Officer's Ward atmospherically creates the world of Adrien Fournier (Eric Caravaca), a handsome young French officer who returns from the front with hideous facial injuries.

After spending the remaining five years of the Great War convalescing in a military hospital, Adrien slowly learns to come to terms with his condition as, with the help of other patients and staff, his sense of identity and self-worth slowly returns. Tenderly sketching the rehabilitaion of Adrien and his fellow officers with subtlety and grace, Dupeyron's film also boasts riveting performances from an exciting young cast, a gentle understated humour and a perceptive look at the prejudices that can shape our lives. Undoubtedly one of the finest contemporary films about the aftermath of conflict, it's a timely, engrossing affair.