The scars from the Iraq war do not heal when U.S. soldiers return home, says a powerful new film starring Tommy Lee Jones that keeps the conflict at the heart of the Venice film festival this year.

After Brian De Palma's "Redacted" stunned audiences with its reconstruction of horrific events in Iraq, Paul Haggis' "In the Valley of Elah" brings a more nuanced, yet moving account of the brutality some soldiers bring back to the United States.

Jones has the critics searching for the superlatives as a man whose son is murdered after returning from Iraq, and as he pieces together what happened, the Vietnam war veteran begins to question his faith in his country and its policies.