Most of us have watched a fair bit of media coverage on the wars waged around the world since 9/11, but we haven’t seen anything like this before.
Restrepo is an extremely well-made documentary following one platoon on a year-long tour of duty in Afghanistan’s notorious Korengal Valley.
It mixes unprecedented coverage from embedded cameramen on the battlefield with studio interviews following the tour. The result is a hugely powerful look at what modern warfare is like.
Early in the film we witness how a firefight starts. The cameras move with a patrol into a village where they are asking locals questions, when one of the soldiers notices some suspicious movement nearby.
There seems to be a bit of confusion, then shots ring out, there’s a lot of running about and suddenly everyone is shooting. Witnessing this build-up with no narration to explain what’s going on gives a great sense of the frightening chaos. It is incredible.
Watching the combat scenes on a big screen with cinema speakers really hammers it home in a way that you just don’t get on TV.
But it’s not just the combat that is put together so well on-screen. The interviews and the scenes while the soldiers are not dodging bullets help construct a deeply moving story.
I beg you to put politics to one side before watching this – if you can do that, it’s pretty easy to think of the guys in this doco as your brothers, fathers, husbands or sons. Venturing with them into battle in one of the most dangerous places on Earth is then as close to war as most of us would ever like to get.
Five stars.
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Note: This film is playing as part of the World Cinema
Showcase - visit the official
website for session times and more info.
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