PINK FLOYD co-founder Roger Waters says a new movie about his monumental, three-year remounting of the band’s famous “The Wall” album should be seen as a protest against the growing spread of armed conflict, rather than just a concert documentary.

    “Roger Waters: The Wall,” which had its world premiere Saturday at the Toronto International Film Festival, documents the massive concerts that included pyrotechnics, animation, a flying inflatable pig and an actual wall constructed on stage as the show progressed.

    But it also includes vignettes of Waters visiting war cemeteries and memorials in Europe, including the grave of a grandfather who died in World War I, and the site of the 1944 battle that killed his father when Waters was just a baby.

    The concert itself featured projections on its set of veterans, activists and average people who died in wars, protests and attacks on civilians.

    Waters said a major theme of the original album is the need to challenge politicians who seem increasingly willing to resort to the use of violence.

    “It’s a question that’s not being asked of our leaders often enough. If this film asks that question, at least in part, then it would be good,” Waters told Reuters on the red carpet ahead of the premiere.

    “It’s a protest movie. It’s an anti-war, protest movie.”

    The film received a standing ovation after a screening packed with fans. The audience also sang an impromptu “Happy Birthday” when Waters, who turned 71 Saturday, took to the stage.

    (SD-Agencies)