In Davood Moradian Karahroodi's 20-minute short film War Story, two men find themselves on opposite sides of a minefield staring at a water jug in the middle of the field. Both men have come to the realization that for one of them to survive, one of them must die.

Based upon a poem by Thomas Hardy, War Story is as much poetry as it is a short film. Experimental in the truest sense of the word, War Story exists for the most part without dialogue. Instead, the film focuses almost solely on the body language of our two characters and the film's mood setting original music.

Nicely photographed on digital, War Story features a lively performance by lead Rouhollah Mehrabi, though at times his expressive face combined with a rather spirited original score gives the false indicator that the film is a rather light comedy (It is not!). While the film isn't a light comedy, it is a rather strong peace statement and Karahroodi does a nice job of creating light within the darkness of war.

War Story is a promising film that seems to indicate that Karahroodi is interested in telling stories about the human experience, and that he has the patience to allow the story to unfold. It will be interesting to watch this filmmaker's growth in the coming years.