ARMADILLO (Denmark 2010) ***
Directed by Janus Metz

ARMADILLO, winner of the Cannes Critics Week prize is very similar in theme to the recent American RESTREPO where an entire mission of a group of soldiers is recorded on camera in Afghanistan.  But where RESTREPO was entirely made-up, ARMADILLO is supposed to be 100% genuine.

In ARMADILLO (the name of active military base, used to support tactical operations in Helmand, Afghanistan), Danish and British troops are responsible for providing security to the surrounding area and eliminating any Taliban insurgency.  But the camera follows a group of Danish soldiers stationed in Armadillo through an entire tour of duty Metz captures both the boredom and the horror of the situation highlighting the danger of fighting and death while coping with each other and the memory of their loved ones left behind in Denmark. 

Director Metz stated his intention of placing the viewer in a position where he/she could say that it’s not even possible to know what was going.  He accomplishes the feat by getting his audience to relate to his characters and feel for them by documenting their daily routine during the mission.  Metz brings his film to a satisfying finish with the soldiers returning home to a grand welcome back at the airport. 

But one problem of the film is the question of how the camera manages to record all the dangerous battle scenes in the movie as the film is supposed to be a documentary.