Downtown Huntsville Library
Warriors and Peacemakers - An International Film Series
Monday, December 14, 2026 5:30 p.m. – 7:45 p.m.
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Japan, 1983)
In a prisoner of war camp run by the Japanese army midway through World War II, one of the prisoners, a compassionate British officer, attempts to reconcile the tensions and misunderstandings between the two cultures, befriending a callous guard as he does so. Against a backdrop of escalating cruelty, further conflict emerges between the camp’s rigid commander and a defiant new English prisoner.
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence was based on Laurens van der Post’s novel The Seed and the Sower, which was itself based on van der Post’s own experiences as a POW captured by the Japanese army in World War II. It was directed by Nagisa Oshima, one of Japan’s greatest film directors, and stars David Bowie, Tom Conti, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Takeshi Kitano.
Warriors and Peacemakers – An International Film Series
This film series explores people seeking peace in times of war and violence (or vice versa): a thematically-linked pair of films deconstructing the Japanese concept of Bushido (the way of the warrior) in both the ostensible peacetime of the early 1600s and in a Japanese POW camp in Java during WWII, and a pair of French films set during each of the two World Wars – following soldiers from enemy armies forging a self-made Christmas truce in WWI and civilians and clergy enduring German-occupied France in WWII.
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December 7: Harakiri (Japan, 1963)
December 14: Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Japan/UK, 1983)
December 21: Joyeux Noel (France, 2005)
December 28: Leon Morin, Priest (France, 1961)
2nd Floor Events Room -- Downtown Huntsville Public Library
Questions: askus@hmcpl.org