It was the British sending troops to fight the Madhi in Sudan in 1875, an event that is the crux of The Four Feathers, director Shekhar Kapur's much-anticipated follow-up to Elizabeth.

Granted, the British expedition to Sudan was more imperialist and less justified than the Afghan conflict, but Feathers does offer a critique of military adventurism that's hard to find in any other mainstream media today. It looks into the mindset of Harry Faversham (Heath Ledger), a young British officer who resigns his commission on the verge of being shipped out to a far-off war zone. Spurned by his fiancée (Kate Hudson) and branded a coward by his friends (including Wes Bentley), he sets off to North Africa, alone, to redeem himself.

In any event, this Victorian-era adventure's timing is eerie. Even though Feathers' principal photography wrapped before September 11, 2001, its subject couldn't be more contemporary regarding our armed forces' situation today. In his journeys, young Faversham sees the horrors of battle that many have glossed over post-Gulf War, and learns the value of courage that many others have forgotten post-Somalia. But will modern-day American audiences be willing to glean subtle lessons from a Victorian-era period adventure? Reel sat down with a genial, gracious, and very tired Kapur in his hotel suite to find out.

Q: On the surface, it seems like the 19th-century British world portrayed in The Four Feathers has little in common with 21st-century America — why did you want to make this film now?

Shekhar Kapur: Because history is always a reflection of the current state of affairs. I like history because if we don't learn from history, we keep repeating it. It's very interesting because looking at history gives us a much sharper focus on our lives now, because we're caught unaware. You know when somebody talks to you about a historical incident, and you say, "Hang on! That's my story!"? But if somebody tells you your story outright, you're going to reject it. So it's a totally left-field way of coming at your state right now.

Q: Do you see any parallels between Victorian-era England and modern-day America?

SK: Funny enough, I shot this [Feathers] before September 11. But even before then I saw a great parallel between the coming battle between Islam and Christianity, because the two big systems of faith are not understanding each other. This has been playing out for many, many years.

Q: This was made before September 11? The timing is uncanny. I mean, in Feathers, you've got a major military force going to a desolate, far-off land to hunt down an extremist Muslim cleric and his band of fanatical followers — it sounds just like America going to Afghanistan to hunt down Osama bin Laden.

SK: Yes, it's uncanny.

Q: However, Feathers tackles a subject that's not really being debated much in America — it questions the motivations behind a great Western power's foreign intervention in a distant, Third World country. Of course, America had more justification to go into Afghanistan in 2001 than Britain did in the Sudan in 1875. Nonetheless, do you worry that Feathers' subtle critique of military adventurism won't be heard in the current nationalistic climate?

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