The hypothetical civil war in the movie is a bit of red herring. The movie is about the challenges and ordeals that photojournalists experience in a war zone, which unfortunately we see from our news almost everyday these days. The movie was intentionally vague about why the war happened. In our political divide, this could have been a strong distraction. Plus, as the movie shows, the why does not matter much because the war is still going on and someone has to be there to document what is going on and let others know even though this risks their lives.

What the movie was intentional about was how stressful these war zones were. When Kirsten Dunst’s character had a meltdown at the end of the movie during the siege, we all felt the emotional toll these journalists are paying for. At the end, when the passing-the-torch moment happened, what the director wanted to deliver was that many journalists in war lose their lives and yet there are their fellow journalists, who continue the efforts, which is very moving.