Srinagar, April 23 -- War films usually announce themselves with explosions. "Line of Control" opens with flowers.

A teenage boy stands in a valley ringed by mountains and wild blooms. Bodies lie scattered around him. Young men. Boys, really. Blood darkens the grass. An Indian Army captain orders him to walk among the dead and collect their identity cards.

That image lands like a punch because director Travis Hodgkins understands a brutal truth about Kashmir: beauty and horror occupy the same frame.

Production recently wrapped on "Line of Control" adapted from The Collaborator, the acclaimed 2011 novel by Mirza Waheed. The book earned praise from publications including The Telegraph and The Guardian, and its arrival on screen holds unu...