Anna Karenina

Battle Scars examines the war experience as well as the wrenching change many veterans face on returning home. Luke Stephens (Zane Holtz) shows up on his brother Nicky (Ryan Eggold)'s doorstep after a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Suffering from both PTSD and physical wounds, unseen but devastating, Luke wants nothing more than to forget the war, but his veteran father (David James Elliott) won't let him. At a local strip club, run by a ruthless killer (Fairuza Balk), Luke crosses paths with Michelle (Heather McComb) who leads him into a violent world every bit as dangerous and isolating as the brutality he desperately tried to leave behind in Afghanistan.

Three stories are set at the beginning, middle and the end of WW2. In all three of them the hero of the movie must witness the death of people he likes.

A Soviet POW joins the partisan guerrillas and proves his loyalty fighting the Germans.

War seen through the eyes of Serra, a university student from Palermo who volunteers in 1942 to fight in Africa. He is assigned to the Pavia Division on the southern line in Egypt. Rommel and the Axis forces are bogged down; it's October, the British prepare an offensive. At first, boredom, heat, hunger, and thirst bedevil the Italians; then the Brits attack, and there's no luck or heroism in death. Finally, it's retreat in confusion. Serra, his sergeant Rizzo, and his lieutenant Fiori take a last walk toward home. It's said that each soldier gets three miracles; when Serra's are used up, what then?

Germany 1939. Hans and Lene marry the day before the war breaks out, and Hans is sent to the Eastern front. During a bombing raid their daughter Anna is born. The house is destroyed and Lene and Anna moves in with relatives in Berlin. Hans survives the war but he is not the same person as in 1939, and he and Lene find it difficult to live together again.

At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the nun Maria is forced to flee her convent. She takes refuge in a brothel, until it is liberated by a woman's anarchist group. Maria joins the group and eventually goes to the front. The women's group faces the problems of fighting not only the nationalists, but also factions on the left seeking to impose a more traditional military structure.