In the thick of it

RESTREPO filmmakers Sebastian Junger (left) and Tim Hetherington at Outpost Restrepo. Korengal Valley, Afghanistan, Kunar Province.

Digital Studio follows Oscar-tipped documentary Restrepo from shooting to post as it chronicles the deployment of a US platoon in one of the most remote, and dangerous parts of Afghanistan.

Restrepo is a feature-length documentary that chronicles the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley. The movie focuses on a remote 15-man outpost, “Restrepo,” named after a platoon medic who was killed in action.

It was considered one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S. military. The documentary is entirely experiential film: the cameras never leave the Afghan valley; there are no interviews with generals or diplomats.

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The only goal is to make viewers feel as if they have just been through a 94-minute deployment. This is war, full stop, say the makers. The conclusions are up to you.

Starting in June 2007, film makers Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger dug in with the men of Second Platoon, making a total of ten trips to the Korengal on assignment for Vanity Fair Magazine and ABC News.

Each trip started with a helicopter flight into the main firebase in the valley and then a two-hour foot patrol out to Restrepo.

There was no running water at Restrepo, no internet, no phone communication, and for a while, there was no electricity or heat; it was essentially just sandbags and ammo. Some days the outpost was attacked three or four times from distances as close as fifty yards.

Hetherington and Junger slept alongside the soldiers, ate with them, survived the boredom and the heat and the cold and the flies with them, went on patrol with them, and eventually came to be considered virtually part of the platoon.

By the end of the deployment, they had shot a total of 150 hours of combat, boredom, humour, terror, and daily life at the outpost.

Conditions for filmmaking couldn’t have been harsher. The surrounding mountains rose to a height of 10,000 feet – all of which was traversed on foot.

Long operations meant carrying enough camera batteries to last a week or more, on top of the fifty or so pounds of gear required on even ordinary patrols. Cameras got smashed into rocks, clogged with dirt and hit with shell cartridges during firefights.

Men were killed and wounded during filming, so there was a constant issue of when it was OK to turn on the cameras and when it was not. The film makers had to use their initiative to successfully capture what was needed, as Hetherington explains: “We each had a camera and filmed more or less of our own volition.