Club Classics: Restrepo

For our August summer season we will screen one of the classics from our documentary catalogue every Wednesday night. The film will start at 7.30pm, opt for our £15 special offer for both the screening and a classic from our clubroom menu, 6pm onwards.

In the most dangerous place in Afghanistan, the violently contested Korengal Valley, a platoon of fifteen American soldiers fight a seemingly endless war against an Al-Qaeda stronghold. Told through the voices of the soldiers themselves, Restrepo takes the viewer on a harrowing journey through the lives of the men serving abroad without the interjection of the vox populi usually heard on the news.

The platoon, named after a medic who was killed during an insurgence, explore the remote countryside of their post in attempts to win the hearts and minds of the valley’s native Afghan people. At every step, however, the threat of bombs and snipers looms as the soldiers try to push forwards into no-mans land. A personal story of loss, tactic, isolation, and the human cost of war, the film explores one of the most hotly debated and discussed military actions in the past decade.

On April 20, 2011 while covering the conflict in Libya, Tim Hetherington was killed by Libyan forces in a mortar attack on the besieged city of Misrata.

Directed by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
Duration: 93 mins
Year: 2010

2011 Oscar Nominated
2010 Winner Grand Jury Prize Documentary Sundance