'Declaration of War' directed by Valerie Donzelli

Once you see this film you will want to become a lifetime patron for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. In Declaration of War, watching the trauma and terror of having a child with cancer may compel you to want to fight against childhood cancer with a vengeance. Cancer is a ridiculously democratic malignancy. It will strike anyone regardless of age, gender, class, income, popularity, etc. Cancer has no mercy nor does it play favorites. Once it has chosen someone, even a child, it wrecks emotional havoc on everyone affected.

This French film captures the vivid emotions of a couple who must fight for the survival of their young child. The couple in the film are played by the director and Jérémie Elkaïm and the plot is based on their own ordeal after their son was diagnosed with cancer. Events like this can either bring a couple closer or drive them apart. How it plays out is what we see in Declaration of War.

From the onset we are told that the baby, named Adam, lived. We watch the kismet moment when Adam’s parents meet, conceive him, and give him life. Conveniently named Romeo and Juliette, the tragedy unfolds when Adam can’t stop crying and his parents must take him to doctor after doctor until he is diagnosed. Fortunately, this happened in France where medical care is free so the young parents don’t go broke trying to save their baby. Had it happened in the United States, it could have been a very different outcome.

The strain of a sick child and his demands progressively tear away and threaten to disintegrate his parents’ relationship. Even extended relations and friends find it difficult to cope with the strain surrounding Adam and his parents. When life and death are waging war on your baby’s life, the searing memories it creates are worth a look in the aftermath.