Kit Harington Goes to War in Testament of Youth Trailer

Posted on April 23, 2015

Kit Harington and Alicia Vikander star in the trailer for Testament of Youth, which is based on the bestselling autobiography of Vera Brittain about love, loss and the horrors of World War I.

In 1914 Vera Brittain (Alicia Vikander) was a young woman about to enroll in Somerville College at Oxford University in Oxford, England. When World War I began idealistic young men signed up to fight for England and headed off the front with no conception of the horrors of war. Vera falls in love with a young soldier named Roland Leighton (Kit Harington). Roland and Vera's little brother both head off to war. She signs up to be a nurse and is sent to the battlefields.

When she returned from the war she returned to Oxford University (one of very few women) and later wrote a memoir about her experiences. Her book is a classic which is one of the few nonfiction bokos which tells of the Great War from a woman's perspective. She writes about her experiences on the front and also at home where so many women lost the men in their lives. Vera became a strong political voice against war.

Kit Harington is nearly unrecognizable in the trailer with his 1914 haircut. He is under contract not to cut his hair for his role as Jon Snow in Game of Thrones, but he must have gotten an exception to do this film. He looks quite different, but still handsome. Alicia is less well-known to audiences. She currently stars in the SF film Ex Machina.

The trailer is beautifully shot and looks quite compelling. The film was directed by James Kent (The White Queen). It will be released in New York and Los Angeles on June 5th, and will expand nationally after that. Take a look:

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