Title: Restrepo; Director: Sebastian Junger & Tim Hetherington; País: USA; Year: 2010; Running time: 123min

Sinopsis: The deployment of the US troops in Afghanistan is reflected in the documentary Restrepo which focuses on the daily live of a platoon in one of the Korengla valley, one of the most dangerous posting during the Afghanistan war. The main aim of the documentary is to place the viewers into the military conflit avoiding to reflect the view of outsiders such as diplomats or politicians, showing exclusively live and unscripted material of what meant to be in the Restrepo outpost.

Elders, soldiers and land

Marc Grau Moragues

BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. 

Universitat Pompeu Fabra

The events that took place in September 11th 2001 in the World Trade Center, located in New York, at the heart of the United States of America, was a turning point in contemporary international relations. More precisely, the terrorist attack of the 11-S gave rise to an American-led intervention on countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan, the so-called “war on terror”. This reaction by the United States shaped and influenced the international contemporary order as it started a new war which affected the whole international community (Castells, 2006).

During the last decade, most of the new war films and documentaries have focused on analysing and reflecting the evolution of the deployment of the US army in such countries. The documentary Restrepo constitutes an exceptional example of such trend as it focuses on the lives of American soldiers installed in the Korengal valley, in the eastern part of the country. The film chronicles the day-by-day life of 15 soldiers installed in the Restrepo outpost, named after “Doc” Restrepo, the medic from the platoon who died in the first phase of the deployment. The documentary strictly focuses on the life of soldiers and local people, leaving behind any kind of political debate or ideological standpoint.

In the first place, one of the most remarkable features of the film is its depiction of the local community at the Korengal Valley. Such society is defined as profoundly rural tied to the land that they work on and lead by the elders. The role of the elders is based on their capacity to align the community towards the islamist violent groups or the American army. Moreover, they are key in order to concede information which may be later used as military intelligence. Therefore, the local community is not only the actor which suffer the consequences of war but rather, it is also an active asset which has the capacity to strengthen or weaken the influence of the different military faction involved in the conflict. However, the range of options and the will of the local community is also tightly limited by war itself as the scarcity of resources and the threat posed by the conflict itself determines the decision made by the elders. In short, despite having an important role based on information and regional support in the conflict, the ciivl society is highly limited and weakened by the war.

However, the US army does not seem to consider the civil society lacking the chance to choose in which side they want to be at all. Rather, the Americans see the elders as a full empowered individuals who have the means to choose who to support and help. Each week, the US soldiers meet with the elders in the shuras to discuss the recent developments of the conflicts and negotiate with the community to achieve their support. In those, they try to convince the locals about the economic benefits of supporting the US army or the stability that those can bring to the valley. However, week by week, the elders differ more and more from the soldiers and ask for what they need and care the most, their basic resources for survival. Despite the importance of convincing the elders to join and support the American soldiers, the triumph over the enemy is based mostly in the geographical sphere. The war is not based on ethnic confrontation or ideologically-driven but rather, it is based on the power of the US army to conquer larger amounts of lands and territory.

Another interesting aspect about the film is that the viewers never get to know directly the enemy, the Islamist armed groups. Our impression on the motivation, feelings and purpose of the enemy is just based on the approach taken the US military. In other words, the film solely and fully represents the subjective impressions and experience of the soldiers fighting in the Korengal valley.

Overall, the film Restrepo is a truthful depiction of the lives of the American soldier sent at the middle of rural Afghanistan to fight the islamist. The representation of the relation between the US army and the local civil society shows us that despite the diplomatic approach made by the Americans is innocuous as the consequences of war determine the lack of power of the locals to free themselves from the conflict.