Review of Armadillo (2010) by Carina D — 19 Nov 2011

In one survey, the Danes were deemed to be the happiest of all people and a model for a rational, sensible financially sound nation without pretense or corruption. They seemed to have mastered the level of moderation that matches aspiration with achievement. What happens to a group of Danes who go to modern war in Afghanistan is the topic of this documentary tale.

The strategy in Afghanistan in places like Helmand province is to build strongholds in the middle of the regions where the Taliban is active and help the civilians withstand Taliban threats and opportunities (whatever they may be). Of course the civilians are caught between a rock and a hard place where no matter what side they choose (or pretend to choose) they loose. The Taliban represent one of the remnants of a fundamentalist political/tribal/religious group that once ruled Afghanistan during a brief period between when the Soviets left and the end of the Civil War that followed and 9/11. After a brief war in 2001, the Taliban were kicked out, and a "democratic" government set up. Since that time coalition forces have been trying to keep the Taliban out.

More than anything else, the film shows how all wars corrupt those who fight them. Against a staggering array of high tech and deadly weapons, the Taliban keep coming back setting up IEDs (booby traps) and making small scale attacks that wound and kill the Danes. The Danes are fighting ghosts. Children and youths in the nearby villages taunt the coalition solders telling them to go home and leave them alone at the same time that they ask for handouts. The soldiers stomp and drive tracked vehicles all over their fields, ruining crops and killing livestock--not to mention civilians who don't get out of the way.

The filmmaker goes out into the fields and villages where the civilians scrape out a bare subsistence, and the viewer comes to share the frustration of the soldiers who cannot find the Taliban before, during or after an attack. The film is further enhanced by the footage taken from model airplane size drones that follow the Taliban as they plant IEDs, set up mortars or firing positions for small scale attacks and even show the Danes and Taliban in a deadly game of hide and go seek in the same frame.

The happy Danes are as naive as the Americans and most other coalition soldiers who are sincerely trying to do good, but soon find that they cannot differentiate friend from foe. When they start taking losses, that distinction becomes less and less important and staying alive and unwounded is paramount. What happens when the Danes finally do meet up with the Taliban is both revealing and terribly sad.