The Guardians

Women were often relegated to (at best) secondary roles in First World War films, typically appearing only as pining mothers, lovers left behind, or romantic dalliances in the brief respites from combat. However, over the decades filmmakers began to turn increasing attention to the experiences of those who were left behind when the boys went marching off to war. Ninety years after John Ford's tender home-front drama Four Sons, Xavier Beauvois directed this portrait of a French farming family whose young men are conscripted and go off to fight, leaving the women to take over traditionally male roles of running the farm even as they anxiously await news of their loved ones on the front lines. Beautifully photographed and perfectly balanced, The Guardians is a resonant tribute to those who fought a different kind of war.