Alex Garland set out to provoke 'conversation' with Civil War

Alex Garland is determined to spark "conversation" with his film 'Civil War'.

The 53-year-old director has helmed the new dystopian flick that follows journalists travelling across the United States as a Second Civil War rages in the country and is hoping to get viewers discussing the state of the modern world.

Alex told IndieWire: "My hope is that I make something which is compelling and engaging, but the product of that is some kind of conversation.

"I'm very wary of things that I feel would shut down the conversation. So it's not that when people have conversations, there are assertions within it; there are statements within it, but you have to be careful about how you do that in a way, particularly in something which in some respects is one-sided because a film is just giving something and then the other part of the film, the receiver of the film (the audience), is made silent by that. And I'm trying to reduce that silence."

Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura and Cailee Spaeny feature as reporters and a photographer covering the war but Garland rejected the arguments that journalism in a warzone is portrayed in a "utopian" manner.

He said: "I don't think it's utopian... because I remember a period of time (of) journalism as reporting, which typically took the form of trying to remove bias from stories.

"Attempting to remove bias and usually not using the word 'I', trying to objectify it or rather to be objective in that reporting, that was the dominant form of journalism for a long time, and it had the benefit of feeling more trustworthy than news organisations that are effectively working as propagandists in one way or another.

"I think all of those journalists, who are in a way calmer, more balanced, and fairer and more reflective; they all exist. They can be found working busily and in some ways effectively right now, except they're not as effective as you would want them to be."