The Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind 'Cartel Land' travels to Afghanistan to see the end of the war, capturing the turmoil as US troops withdrew.
In early 2021, while the Americans were focused on transferring power home, brash director Matthew Heineman ("Cartel Land," "City of Ghosts") assembled a team and flew to Afghanistan to check on the state of the war. longest in the United States. At that point, Osama bin Laden had been dead for a decade, the Taliban was weakened but not defeated, and the US-trained Afghan army was holding its own pretty well, and yet almost 20 years later, there was still no end in sight. for American participation. That changed almost as soon as Heineman arrived, when the Biden administration made plans to pull out.
Director: Matthew Heineman
At that point, what could have been just another desert warfare documentary as usual, with routine patrols, precisely targeted drone strikes, and soldiers expressing their boredom, changed into something audiences hadn't seen before. The title, "Retrograde", refers to the process by which military forces disengage from conflict by removing or otherwise rendering useless equipment they had used to engage the enemy. For Heineman, that meant capturing all sorts of cinematic views: a muscular soldier smashes through a bunch of computer monitors, helicopters transport vehicles, and it all goes haywire as a crew dumps all the remaining ammunition into a trench, douses it with gasoline, and ignites the pile. . with an accurate rocket. The Taliban will not use these bullets.
Over the past two decades, we've received more documentaries about Afghanistan than we can count, but none quite like this one. Visually speaking, all of Heineman's films stand out (including his excellent 2018 scripted debut, "A Private War"). Here, the intrepid director, who shot most of the film himself, brings back high-definition footage that looks sharper and more artfully framed than most Hollywood movies. His attention is almost always on the faces: no-nonsense Green Berets scanning the horizon with all-seeing eyes, native Afghans with dusty cheeks and frightened, uncertain expressions, during the final chapter of the US occupation.
Heineman begins at the "finale", when people mill around the Kabul airport hoping to get out. His cameras are there in the middle of the fray, as Afghan soldiers fire warning shots over the heads of the crowd, and we immediately feel the danger this small film crew has put themselves in to bring us this story. Yes, viewers saw even more shocking footage of the exodus, as desperate people clung to the wings of departing planes. This is different: Heineman keeps filming even after his escorts leave, risking his skin to document the short and alarming stretch before the capital fell to the Taliban.
The scenes that resonate most occur before the American departure, when soldiers who have spent years defending Afghanistan find themselves trying to explain their departure, a policy with which many of them clearly disagree, knowing that the "friends" who supported them will instantly become the priority targets of the Taliban. Virtually every documentary set in Afghanistan in the last 20 years deals with collateral damage, usually the women and children killed in tactical attacks. This one deals with the fact that US allies are now being taken from their homes and executed, or else stuck in airports, unable to get out.
After opening the mess in Kabul, Heineman flashes back to his arrival in January 2021, taking us to Helmand province, where a team of US Army Green Berets have been instructing locals on how to defend themselves. . "You weren't even born when this war started?" a tour veteran asks a young soldier, underscoring how far we've come since the 9/11 attacks that brought US forces into the region. Another seasoned officer points to the long-term consequences of US involvement during that time: "Innocent men who died in 2000/2005, their sons are now old enough to join the Taliban." For some, the Americans were the liberators, while others will harbor lifelong vendettas against them. The most compelling character in the film is General Sami Sadat, promoted in the Afghan army for keeping the Taliban at bay.
Watch Retrograde 2022 Movie Trailer
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