Riverboom

Claude Baechtold's 2024 documentary follows the journey of a three-person team of journalists into Afghanistan after the eleventh of September. Baechtold is not a war reporter; two experienced colleagues take him along almost by force, and he films everything. The footage sat in a box for twenty years; the film was only cut together later, and that delay sets its tone. Baechtold's voice-over refuses the seriousness of the war documentary; the narration is funny and self-mocking, and precisely for that reason what is seen strikes harder. The film's limit is that the Afghan side's voice stays thin, and the director admits it openly. Who it's for: viewers interested in unconventional war documentary and stories about journalism. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a serious regional analysis, or avoiding images of violence.