War (2017)

In a Christian culture, suicide is a taboo, and a soldier’s suicide is
a double taboo. Rivo, who has been on a military mission to Afghanistan twice, suffers from a post-traumatic disorder, which ends in suicide. For four years, Rivo’s girlfriend Hanna tries to battle his psychological disorder, but then gives up and moves from Estonia to Australia. Six months later Rivo steps in front of a train. His last message to those who know him is to forgive him. In Dino Buzzati’s novel The Tartar Steppe nameless soldiers, who serve a nameless emperor in a nameless country, are waiting for a nameless enemy. ESTCOY soldiers in Afghanistan had a clearer idea of both who the enemy was and of their location. Nevertheless, some soldiers are mentally deeply wounded when they come back from war. Rivo’s diagnosis was that he was a psychopath.
Who is a (professional) soldier in today’s world? How does he cross the Bridge of Death? Does he have to sacrifice himself for the chain of command in order to participate in situations where none of what he was taught in childhood applies anymore? Where do you draw the line between justified and unjustified suffering? Euphemisms may not work on a personal level. The glorification of war has aggravating, not alleviating effects.