War tourism. You can recover from war too

When tourism turns history into spectacle, memory becomes a contested space

War tourism is an experimental documentary film that approaches historical memory from an unconventional and deliberately light-hearted perspective. The film emerges from the director’s personal curiosity about war tourism and his decision to immerse himself fully in this phenomenon, observing how violence, conflict, and trauma are translated into touristic experiences. By visiting museums, listening to guides, reading interpretative texts, and engaging with audiovisual displays, the director seeks to understand not only what stories are being told, but how these stories are constructed and conveyed to the public.

As this process unfolds, the filmmaker becomes increasingly aware of his own position within this system, shifting from observer to participant. The film adopts a restrained observational approach, filming without overt intervention and favouring dialogue with tourists and guides to understand their motivations and perspectives. A large body of recorded material is later shaped into a carefully constructed visual and sound collage, complemented by archival audio that introduces a scripted dimension through selective separation and recombination of image and sound.

Drawing on a wide range of narrative strategies, the documentary pushes the limits of the genre through parody and experimentation. Television formats are appropriated to establish rhythm and tone, fictional devices are used to recreate characters, and propaganda voices from past wars are recontextualised to alter the meaning of contemporary images. Throughout the film, the presence of tourism is constant, with tourists moving among soldiers, tanks, and historical reconstructions, becoming part of the staged memory themselves. In this context, War tourism functions as an audiovisual essay in which satire becomes a critical tool, challenging simplified historical discourses while refusing to conceal the cruelty of the past.