Video surging 30x the video's usual pace

Lukas Dhont's Coward puts theater behind the trenches

Madman Films' trailer for the Close director's World War I drama pairs battlefield orders with rehearsals, performances and an intimate bond.

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Madman Films Story of October 25, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video is running at 93,369 views a day, 30 times its usual pace (3,118).

Coward - Official Trailer

The recruits are ordered into the trenches, then sent to retrieve casualties. Behind the front lines, another task takes shape: building a stage. That contrast runs through "Coward - Official Trailer", where soldiers rehearse dances and put on shows while the war presses in around them.

Madman Films' upload added about 93,000 views in a day, nearly thirty times its usual daily pace. Posted four days ago, it gathered most of its audience in that single burst rather than at release.

Coward is directed by Lukas Dhont, whose Close traced an intense friendship between two boys and earned an Oscar nomination for international feature film. Here, an intimate bond develops between two young soldiers as they prepare theatrical performances for troops and commanders. The stage is not sealed off from the battlefield: a wounded soldier's accusation gives the film's title a bitter edge.

Viewers are making the Close connection in the comments, anticipating another emotionally demanding story. Others discuss the history of soldiers staging drag performances during World War I, a subject the trailer has prompted them to revisit.

Madman, the film's Australian and New Zealand distributor, describes Coward as a story of tenderness and devotion. Its description lists a January 7 cinema release.

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