Archive notice: This article was originally published on January 22, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH will open in Germany on March 6, 2008, distributed by CONCORDE FILM. It had its world premiere in competition at the 2007 Venice International Film Festival, where it thrilled and moved audiences and critics alike. With his directorial debut L.A. CRASH, director and screenwriter Paul Haggis won two Oscars® in 2006 (Best Screenplay, Best Picture), and the leading roles in IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH were cast with an ensemble of stars who have also won several Oscars®: Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon.
IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH is a successful blend of dramatic suspense, emotional force and intelligent storytelling—disturbing and thought-provoking at the same time. Based on a true story, Haggis tells, sensitively and never sensationally, without preaching or judging, of the horrors of the Iraq war in people’s minds and hearts, and of how it shapes and changes those who wage it.
Mike Deerfield (Jonathan Tucker) fights in Iraq for eighteen months, survives the war, but suddenly goes missing after returning home. Mike’s father, Hank Deerfield (TOMMY LEE JONES), sets out to solve the mysterious disappearance of his son and find him, going straight to Mike’s army base in Fort Rudd, New Mexico. What the Vietnam veteran Hank eventually discovers, with the support of Emily Sanders (CHARLIZE THERON), a detective with the local police who initially supports him only reluctantly, is a shocking truth and a web of corruption and lies. Mike’s superiors obstruct the investigation, and his comrades guard a secret that turns Hank Deerfield’s previously orderly world completely upside down. A secret that conceals not only the changes in his son Mike, but also the unhealed wounds of war across the country …
