Published August 4, 2010
The treacherous terrain of the Korengal Valley in eastern Afghanistan is regarded throughout the U.S. military as one of the most dangerous posts an American soldier can be assigned. Long-time war journalists Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Jungermake their directing debuts with a documentary that follows Second Platoon, Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, as they struggle through a one-year deployment in this hostile land. Restrepo, which took the Grand Jury Prize at this year’sSundance Film Festival, focuses on a remote 15-man outpost that the platoon named in honor of their medic, PFC Juan “Doc†Restrepo, who was killed in action. From 150 hours of footage shot over ten months — combat, boredom, humor, terror, labor and death — comes 94 minutes of life at war. CL’s Tim Sukits conducted phone interviews with the two co-directors of the documentary, which opens at Burns Court Cinema this Fri., Aug. 6.
How did this whole project get underway?
Hetherington: “Well, Sebastian had the idea to follow a platoon of soldiers. He was interested in the G.I.s in [Second Platoon, Battle Company] and so he met that platoon in Kabul and they were going to Korengal. He talked to me about it and we teamed up and went up there, so it was pretty organic. We initially went together then we started to tag team it, so each of us had different times.†(more…)