The Annapolis Film Society will screen Atonement at Maryland Hall on Tuesday, September 22. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., the film begins at 7 p.m., and tickets are $20 for general-admission seating. Executive producer and Annapolis resident Wayne Rogers will join a post-screening audience discussion, according to Eye On Annapolis.
About the film
Van Dyk wrote and directed Atonement, his first feature as a director. The film follows a Marine whose decision during combat in Iraq has deadly consequences for a civilian family, then turns to his later attempt to confront the past and reconnect with a survivor. Its themes include trauma, moral injury, responsibility and forgiveness, according to Eye On Annapolis.
Atonement premiered at the 2026 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight before its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Boyd Holbrook stars, Hiam Abbass plays Mariam, and Kenneth Branagh portrays the journalist who helps bring the Marine and a surviving family member together, according to the Toronto International Film Festival.
The real event behind the story
The film is based on journalist Dexter Filkins’s reporting about a 2003 incident in Baghdad. KERA News reported that Lance Cpl. Lu Lobello and other Marines fired on civilian vehicles approaching an intersection, killing three members of the Kachadoorian family and wounding a young woman. Lobello later sought help finding surviving relatives and eventually met members of the family in Glendale, California, according to KERA News.
A local connection
Rogers’s participation connects the Annapolis event to the film’s production. Van Dyk also has a prior connection to local film audiences: his short DeKalb Elementary screened at the Annapolis Film Festival before receiving an Academy Award nomination for best live-action short film, according to Eye On Annapolis. Maryland Hall is at 801 Chase Street in Annapolis.
Maryland’s film and arts infrastructure
Maryland Hall describes itself as a regional cultural center dedicated to engaging people of all ages and backgrounds through arts experiences.
The screening also comes within a broader state effort to support film production. According to the Maryland Department of Commerce, the state made $22.5 million in film tax credits available for fiscal years 2012 through 2014. A 2014 study cited by the department found that each dollar claimed in film tax credits was associated with $1.03 in total tax revenues and $3.69 in economic output.
