Armadillo

The documentary records the six-month tour of a group of Danish soldiers at the Armadillo base in Helmand, Afghanistan. The crew go out on patrol, stay inside the firefights, and the young men in front of the camera change over time: they arrived excited and leave under investigation after an incident. Janus Metz's film was argued over for editing the combat footage like a war film and using music, the objection being that real deaths were turned into spectacle. In Denmark the film opened a debate in parliament and an inquiry was launched into one of the soldiers' actions. It took the grand prize of Critics' Week at Cannes. Who it is for: viewers interested in war documentary and frontline footage. Who it is not for: anyone avoiding real combat and images of death.