FESTIVAL PREMIERE
The War Between
Director: Deborah Correa
“…a soaring achievement.” – Film Threat
Set in April 1862 in Arizona Territory, The War Between follows two enemy soldiers and a Chiricahua Apache outcast, who must rely on each other to survive the unforgiving Sonoran Desert. As a Union soldier with no memory struggles to reclaim his identity, the trio confronts their beliefs, prejudices, and the harsh realities of a divided nation. Set against a little-known Civil War campaign in the American Southwest, this intimate epic explores how survival, identity, and connection are forged in the face of war.
CAST & CREDITS
Director
Deborah Correa
Producer
Lenny Mesi, Deborah Correa, Jennifer Pfalzgraff
Writer
Ron Yungul
Key Cast
Damian Conrad-Davis, Sam Bullington, Wayne Charles Baker, Essa O'Shea, Robert Peters
DIRECTORS BIO
Deborah Correa is a director and producer whose work spans narrative and documentary film, television, and podcasts. A graduate of the prestigious AFI Directing Workshop for Women, her storytelling is deeply shaped by a bi-cultural upbringing between California and Medellín, Colombia, where she came of age during the height of the narco-wars.
Her father, an immigrant from Bogotá, and her mother, from Woodland, California, instilled in her a deep understanding of identity, displacement, and resilience; core themes that resonate throughout her work. Her credits include projects for PBS, History Channel, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Paramount+, and Hulu. On The Warfighters (Film 45/History), she collaborated with over 90 U.S.
Special Operations veterans, building lasting relationships that inform her nuanced portrayals of conflict and masculinity. Her short film Re/Collection, starring Army Ranger veteran Josh Kelly, premiered at the Sun Valley Film Festival. Correa’s feature directorial debut, The War Between, reimagines the war and Western genres through an intimate, character-driven lens. Praised by Film Threat as “a soaring achievement,” the film blends genre convention with a contemporary interrogation of survival, morality, and the human cost of conflict.
Correa continues her exploration of overlooked histories through characters that exude quiet defiance. Drawn to stories that challenge inherited narratives about race, power, and national identity; she brings a deeply humanist and cinematic eye to the screen, allowing unspoken truths to surface in silence, stillness, and fleeting moments of grace.
DIRECTORS STATEMENT
Directing The War Between opened my eyes to lesser-known corners of American history; specifically, that the Civil War reached as far west as Tucson, and that the California Column, a volunteer force, pushed the Confederacy out of Southern California.
Filming at Picacho Peak, the actual site of the western-most battle, felt like stepping back in time. The landscape held echoes of the past – vast, yet quietly resonant with conflict.
History doesn’t repeat itself in neat patterns; instead, it pulses beneath the surface, reemerging in moments of cultural reckoning.
I see history as a living, breathing force, one we’re all inextricably part of. We’re shaped by what came before, even if we didn’t choose it. And now, standing at our own crossroads, we must decide how we shape what comes next. The shadows of the past loom large, but they can also become guides, if we’re willing to look.
In The War Between, two men, enemies by circumstance, are forced to journey together across an unforgiving desert. They confront not just the physical hardships of survival, but also their deeply ingrained prejudices. The film wrestles with themes of identity, and empathy. Can we recognize ourselves in those we’ve been taught to hate?
This story challenges audiences to confront their own blind spots. I believe dehumanization leads to violence. I believe that how we treat each other, especially across lines of difference, ultimately defines who we are and where we’re headed. In a world still fractured by division, The War Between serves as both a reminder and a question: What have we learned, and who do we choose to be now?
