Letters from Iwo Jima is a powerful companion film to Flags of Our Fathers, showing the brutal conflict on the tiny, desolate island of Iwo Jima from the opposing Japanese forces’ perspective.

Academy Award winner Clint Eastwood (Bridges of Madison County) directs the untold story of Japanese soldiers defending their homeland against invading American forces during World War II. With little defense beyond sheer will and the volcanic rock of Iwo Jima itself, the tactics of General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) and his men transform what might have been swift defeat into nearly 40 days of heroic, resourceful combat. Their sacrifices, struggles, courage and compassion live on in this taut and gripping film.

Working with an international cadre of talents, including screenwriter Iris Yamashita (based on a story by Yamashita and Flags co-screenwriter Paul Haggis), Eastwood not only set out to tell the opposite military’s perspective and experiences of the lengthy, harrowing battle on Iwo Jima, but in the Japanese soldiers' own language. While representing war from multiple vantages for the cinema is not wholly without precedent, Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers together form a truly unique, must-see mirror of two sides in conflict in thoughtful ways that help us toward understanding rather than vilification.