Nicola Daley

Benediction profiles WWI poet Siegfried Sassoon with an overdue tribute. Early in Benediction, British writer/director Terence Davies introduces archival WWI footage, grim images that punctuate the entire narrative. Sobering scenes reveal war’s horrors and set the stage for Siegfried Sassoon’s deeply personal objections, through his poetry and his in-person protests to political and military authorities, who reject his critiques. Sassoon knows whereof he speaks, with experience on the Western Front.