Fact1: wife commits suicide out of grief, Fact2: Joshua resolves to bring sons bodies home, Fact3: Ayshe tells him to bribe Learning purpose of journey local fisherman to travel to Gallipoli by boat, Fact4: Hasan persuades ANZAC captain Lt-Col Cyril Hughes to prioritize helping Joshua with search, Fact5: Greek soldiers attack train with Jemal Hasan and Joshua surviving
Output: The film begins in 1919, just after World War I has ended, and centres around Joshua Connor Russell Crowe, an Australian farmer and water diviner. His three sons Arthur Ryan Corr, Edward James Fraser, and Henry Ben OToole served with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps ANZAC during the military campaign in Gallipoli four years previously and are presumed dead. After his wife Eliza Jacqueline McKenzie commits suicide out of grief, Joshua resolves to bring his sons bodies home and bury them with their mother. Joshua travels to Turkey and stays in a hotel in Istanbul run by warwidowed Ayshe Olga Kurylenko, but is unable to travel to Gallipoli by road. Learning the purpose of his journey, Ayshe tells him to bribe a local fisherman to travel to Gallipoli by boat. When he arrives, Joshua learns that ANZACs are engaged in a mass burial detail and all civilians are banned. Major Hasan Yılmaz Erdogan, a Turkish officer assisting the ANZACs, persuades the ANZAC captain LtCol Cyril Hughes Jai Courtney to prioritize helping Joshua with his search. After finding Edward and Henrys graves, Joshua sees in his dreams that Arthur survives the battle. Hasan recognizes Joshuas surname and tells him that Arthur might have been taken prisoner. Joshua returns to Istanbul, but fails to find out which prison camp Arthur was transferred to, as many Turkish records have been burned. He returns to Ayshes hotel and learns that she is being pressed to marry her brotherinlaw, Omer. Their argument becomes heated and Omer retreats when Joshua intervenes. Ayshe lashes out, blaming Joshua for making things worse and tells him to leave. As Joshua leaves the hotel, Omer and a few of his friends attack him, only to be stopped by Hasans subordinate, Sergeant Jemal Cem Yılmaz. Jemal takes Joshua to Hasan, who explains that the Greeks have invaded and they are going to defend their country as the British are not intervening. Joshua decides to travel with Hasans group, who will pass through the region where his son might be. As Joshua returns to the hotel to retrieve his belongings, Ayshe apologizes for her earlier words. While on the train, Jemal asks Joshua about a cricket bat he found in the Allied trenches when they retreated, as he is unsure whether it is a weapon or not. Joshua then explains to the Turkish soldiers on board the train the basic rules of cricket. However, Greek soldiers attack the train with only Jemal, Hasan and Joshua surviving the initial assault. Using the bat, Joshua saves Hasan as a Greek officer prepares to execute him but Jemal is killed in the resulting struggle. Joshua and Hasan flee to a nearby town where they spot a windmill, which Joshua saw in his recurring dream. There he finds Arthur alive but traumatized. Arthur reveals that at the end of the battle, Edward was still alive but badly wounded. He pleaded with Arthur to end his suffering, and Arthur reluctantly complied. Blaming himself for his brothers deaths, Arthur felt he could never return to his family. The Greek soldiers who previously attacked the train begin to attack the town, and the two men try to escape through the mountains. Arthur refuses to follow his father, but relents when Joshua says that without his wife and sons, he has nowhere else to go. They successfully evade the Greek army and return to Ayshes hotel. The film ends with Joshua drinking a cup of coffee made by Ayshe which indicates that she has fallen in love with him.