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This film by Belgian documentary master, Willy Van der Linden took the top prize in the American International Film & Video Festival 2008. In it Willy and his brother find an old photograph of their great uncles as soldiers and visit the battlefield graveyards where they are buried.

Will ye go to Flanders, my Mally, O? And join the bold hielanders, my Mally, O? Ye'll hear the captains callin' And see the sergeants crawlin' And a' the sodjers fallin', my Mally, O. (traditional song)

My father, Frans Van der Linden, was a member of the Resistance in the Second World War. His remains lie in a military cemetery near Antwerp. He seldom talked about the things that happened to him. Once I sang the German national anthem Deutschland über Alles! I learnt German at school. My teacher had given that song to his pupils. Maybe he was a collaborator! My father was furious. I will never forget that day…

My dad, however, talked a lot about his uncles, my great-uncles, who died in Flanders Fields. He was born just after the First World War and my great grand-parents were in deep mourning at that time. Two of their sons, Frans and Victor, were killed by the explosion of shrapnel shells.1 One member of my family has a large photograph of the two soldiers smoking a cigarette. All this gave me the idea of making a film about them. Afterwards I thought it would be better to make a documentary about the Great War and to use the story of my great-uncles as an introduction. In the finished film my brother and I are actors. Our second names are Frans and Victor !

I did some research work which I enjoy very much. I am a former teacher of history. I contacted the Army Museum in Brussels. They gave me the diaries of my two great-uncles. So I could give the members of the Van der Linden family surprising information. Then I visited the Passchendale 1917 Museum. They gave me archive footage. I didn't have to pay for it, but I had to do something in return. They asked me to film all the events to commemorate the Battle of Passchendaele 1917.

The remains of a Lancashire Fusilier was found by the chairman of the Volunteer Passchendaele Society.2 I got the privilege of filming the funeral of the soldier. Moreover Her Majesty the Queen visited Tyne Cot Cemetery in July. I was allowed to follow her with my camera. I filmed the Scottish, Irish and ANZAC- weekends. There was no Welsh weekend… What an experience thanks to my hobby! Next year I will make a film about all these events.

Why "Will Ye Go to Flanders?". Because thousands and thousands of young men from different countries all over the world died in Flanders Fields. Foreigners and even our own Flemish people don't always realise how many young soldiers lost their lives in this small part of Belgium. And what for? For some political idiots whose vanity was a form of madness. Not only these young men were the victims of the Great War, also their wives, their children, their parents… It is good that I showed so many cemeteries in my film: British ones, French ones, Irish ones, Belgian ones and … yes, also German ones. Why not?

Strange … that War of Madness! It was unique that even Irish catholic and protestant soldiers fought together putting aside "for the duration" their differences about Irish independence from Britain. This special situation is recognised in the engraving on the plague of a statue in the Irish Peace Park.

- Willy Van der Linden

This article first appeared on the IAC website and is used by kind permission of the webmaster and author.