If you have an interest in the military campaign in Afghanistan, or in modern film-making — and if you have a strong stomach — I would strongly recommend Hell and Back Again, a contender in the Best Documentary category at the Oscars this weekend. Despite winning the World Documentary prize at Sundance last year, it had a very limited cinema release (not unusually for a documentary) and is yet to break even worldwide, though that may be about to change.
The main difference with the other equally impressive but better-known documentaries on the Afghan campaign, Restrepo and Armadillo, is the film’s individual focus. It concentrates on a single US Marine, Sergeant Nathan Harris, following him through a tour in Afghanistan, and after his return home. A few days before the end of his tour, Sergeant Harris was shot in the backside, and suffered complex and messy wounds as the bullet ricocheted through his hip and thigh.
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