Action thriller imagines US ravaged by civil war

Actress Kirsten Dunst, who plays a war photographer in Civil War, hopes the film starts conversations on US gun control laws

- Alison de Souza

Could the United States and other major democracies collapse and descend into civil war? This is the dystopian scenario imagined in the action thriller Civil War, which follows a group of journalists on a road trip through a war-torn America where citizens are pitted against one another in a bloody armed conflict.

Opening in Singapore cinemas on April 10, the movie is written and directed by Alex Garland, the English film-maker behind the acclaimed science-fiction drama Ex Machina (2014).

Kirsten Dunst plays veteran war photographer Lee, who is accompanied by her colleague Joel (Wagner Moura) and rookie reporter Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) as she heads to Washington, DC to interview the embattled president (Nick Offerman).

The audience never learns exactly what has caused this civil conflict, but the film will speak to the political anxieties of many Americans, says Dunst, who was Oscarnominated for the psychological drama The Power Of The Dog (2021).