The ABC has revealed a new series by Mint Pictures – fronted by acclaimed actor and art lover Rachel Griffiths – will premiere on November 18.
The series, titled ‘When The War Is Over’, puts art to the ultimate test: one artwork, and one war, at a time, exploring how art and pop culture help us understand and heal from war.
Across five episodes, Rachel explores the game-changing songs, iconic paintings, blockbuster films, best-selling books, jaw-dropping artworks and spine-tingling performances that have helped transform Australians’ understanding of our five major wars: World War I, World War II, Vietnam, Afghanistan and the Australian Wars.
A descendent of WWI veterans at Gallipoli, Rachel visits key battlegrounds across the globe – in Türkiye, Vietnam and Thailand.
Back in Australia, she meets artists, veterans, curators and historians, exploring the unheralded role of art in war, both in the midst of battle and for the generations that follow.
From Jimmy Barnes belting out Khe Sanh to Ben Quilty’s haunting portraits of Afghanistan war veterans, this is a richly layered series about the real-world impact of art on all of us, on both a personal and national level.
‘When The War Is Over’ is a provocative and moving examination of how art challenges our myths, memorialises trauma, and redefines heroism, and importantly, the series confronts the legacy of the Australian Wars, an often-overlooked chapter in Australia’s war history.
This is the fifth time Mint Pictures has collaborated with the Golden Globes-winning actor: the partners previously produced ‘Finding The Archibald’ (ABC, 2021) and ‘Great Southern Landscapes’ (ABC, 2022), and Rachel narrated ‘The Secret Life of Death’ (SBS, 2019) and ‘The Archibald’ (Foxtel 2018).
‘When The War Is Over’ is a Mint Pictures production in association with Magdalene Media, financed by the ABC and Screen Australia, with development funding from Screen NSW. It is led by series director Sophie Meyrick, with Daniel King directing the Australian Wars episode, series producer Ili Bare, and Griffiths’ fellow executive producers, Dan Goldberg and Craig Graham. ABC Commercial is the international distributor.
