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By that I mean: In this movie, there’s violence, there’s war, but there is no sense of innocence, at least not in the way that Americans use the word “innocence,” as in “that thing that we’re constantly losing every decade throughout our history.” There is no innocence in this movie. There’s sweetness and kindness, but that’s not the same thing as innocence. These are tough people. When we hear that war is imminent, your characters don’t seem terribly shocked. It’s like, “Oh, OK—well, I guess we’ll have to get ready for that.” There is a sense that this is not the first time something like this has happened. War is something these people recognize as a part of life. The movie is a comedy, and yet there’s a sense of history and suffering.
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