"War is the father of all things," states Heraclitus. "Even of European film d'auteur," says Peter von Bagh. The Director of the Midnight Sun Festival has compiled statements from legendary podium discussions, in which international filmmakers reveal their early influences. They belong to a generation that was decisively formed by the Second World War - on the front, in POW camps, under occupation by the Germans or in the resistance against them. Directors from Italy, France and England recount how they handled their experiences after new democratic beginnings, while their colleagues from socialist countries were subjected to Stalinist pressure. The US directors Samuel Fuller and Francis Ford Coppola - not least known for their war films - complement the many-voiced history lesson given by the vanguard of film d'auteur, including Milos Forman, Ivan Passer, Miklós Jancsó, István Szabo, Jerzy Skolimowski, Michael Powell, John Boorman, Claude Sautet, Francesco Rosi, Dino Risi and others, who illuminate "The Century of Cinema" with personal flashbacks under the midnight sun.