Jules Xavier
Shilo Stag

Learning her lines from the script for Hyena Road was no problem for 33-year-old Canadian actress Christine Horne, who has appeared in such films as Stories We Tell, and The Captive.
Figuring out the Canadian Army’s acronyms used on the set of Paul Gross’ 2015 movie required some help from the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members who consulted on the film.
“As an actor, we play people doing their jobs, just like being a doctor,” Horne told the Stag during media interviews conducted at the Grant Park Cinemas in Winnipeg. “So this role was no different for me being a soldier.
“Unlike the guys, I only did a little physical [and weapons] training because I was mainly on the Base, not out where the war was going on. But the toughest part of my role was all the acronyms. For me, my biggest job was learning the language used by the military. You want to be believable when it comes to what we are talking about as there are so many code words used by soldiers … like 2IC and FOB.”
As shoppers passed by the theatre window where she was sitting, stopping briefly to figure out why a TV camera is focused on Gross, who was nearby giving an interview about the film to Shaw Cable, she added, “That was one of my biggest challenges working with Paul’s script, to understand what we are saying to each other as actors.”
Hyena Road opened on Oct. 9, 2015 at Brandon’s Landmark Theatre. Written, produced and directed by Gross, who also stars in the two-hour film as a high-ranking intelligence officer, the Canadian war drama tells the story of three men from different paths, caught in a conflict but brought together to save lives: a highly skilled sniper (Allan Hawco) who can’t think of his targets as human; an intelligence officer (Gross) who has never killed while on duty; and a legendary Afghanistan warrior (Niamatullah Arghandabi as The Ghost) who left war behind, but gets pulled back to battle.
This Base and a nearby quarry were used as a location for the film last fall for 15 days, and actual soldiers stationed here were cast as extras to provide an authentic feel. Gross then travelled to Jordan to complete filming, using that country as a stand-in for Afghanistan.
Playing Capt Jennifer Bowman, Horne was more than happy to converse with actual soldiers to transform herself. It takes more than a uniform to become believable. She even spent a day out on the training range with 2PPCLI soldiers during Ex KAPYONG SPEAR.
“For me, a lot of what I was doing I was learning as I went,” she explained. “I talked with soldiers. I was lucky also to have a female captain who I was able to watch doing her training exercises.
“I was not doing a lot of physical stuff compared to the guys, who had army boot camp. They had a sniper consultant for their roles. For me, I asked a lot of questions when I had them … it was about accuracy so I made sense when I was [acting].”
Having already done the 2009 feature film Passchendaele — a movie based on the famous First World War battle heroically fought by 50,000 Canadians in the bloodied fields of Ypres, Belgium — Gross thought that would be his only war feature film. A trip in 2010 to visit Canadian troops in Afghanistan led to Hyena Road.
“I found the war experience unexpected and mesmerizing,” he said.”Being in the middle of the war zone, the sheer complexity and the dignity in which Canadians are represented by our soldiers, it occurred to me that I wanted to return to Afghanistan with a camera team and document as much as I could.”
He spent 10 days and shot more than 60 hours of footage, aboard an array of military aircraft, at FOBs, in Kandahar Airfield, and in Kandahar City.
With no lighting equipment, he spent his evenings talking to soldiers about their experiences and hearing their stories. It was these stories, thousands of them, which helped him craft the screenplay for Hyena Road after he returned home.
What was he looking for when he cast Horne as Capt Bowman?
“Christine had probably the hardest challenge in the film,” he said. “Because of our schedule she had to shoot an enormous amount of material, much of it extremely emotional, in a very compressed couple of days.
“She was magnificent and I knew without question she would be able to shoulder the weight of bringing all the emotional strands of the film together with real humanity and break our hearts.
“She delivered such a beautiful performance on every level — it’s nuanced, complicated and beautiful. She carries her rank with the authority it deserves and yet is human and vulnerable. And mostly importantly, she has crafted Jennifer as an adult — not an ingenue, but a real woman in a very difficult world.”
Horne enjoyed wearing her tan military wardrobe, saying the wardrobe was comfortable during the shoot. The only time she actually wore a helmet was while in a LAV during Ex KAPYONG SPEAR.
“This was a positive experience playing this role,” she said, “but I think of the soldiers who had horrible experiences during the war. Acting was easy for me; being a soldier and making sacrifices for your country, now that’s for real.”
What did Horne think of herself after watching Hyena Road for the first time at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)?
“It’s always hard seeing myself up on the screen when a film is done,” she offered.
“I look at myself more critically when it comes to my performance, plus I’m looking at the technical side of filming … I am seeing the editing. I am hearing us say or lines. I am looking at the pace of the film, or the continuity.”
Having Hyena Road shown in Winnipeg at a red carpet screening, Horne said she will use that second viewing to just watch and enjoy the movie.
“I did enjoy the feedback I received talking with the military who were at TIFF to see the film,” she said. “The response was great because this was not a propaganda film. It was not a patriotic film as you might see coming out of the States like Hurt Locker, or American Sniper.”
Having Gross as her director, but also playing opposite him, was an “awesome” experience for Horne.
“He’s a great scene partner … like me, he’s done a lot of theatre. We speak the same language,” she said. “As a director he cares about facilitating our art. He provides us with an arena where we are able to put in a performance. He had a great understanding of allowing us to perform.”
She added, “It’s not always about the technical parts of the film because Paul cares about the actor being able to draw on their emotions if the scene calls for it.”
Up next for Horne is a play in Toronto called The Road To Paradise. She said it has a similar feel to Hyena Road because of the subject matter.
The play is about a child suicide bomber in Pakistan, a Canadian soldier in Kandahar, and an Afghan immigrant in Toronto. Three worlds collide in this play about love and loss in the time of war. It is based on interviews conducted with families of the CAF, the Pakistan Army, and the Taliban — the play explores how the war in Afghanistan is affecting the lives of women and children.

Actress Christine Horne enjoyed her outing in 2015 with 2PPCLI during Ex KAPYONG SPEAR while on the Base filming her scenes for the Paul Gross war movie Hyena Road. While learning her lines was no problem, Horne said the Canadian Army’s acronyms were another story as she played her part as Capt Jennifer Bowman. Photos by Jules Xavier/Photo Submitted