Armadillo

Armadillo is a tour de force from director Janus Metz who, with cameraman Lars Skree, spent six months with a group of Danish soldiers on an army base in the inhospitable and volatile Helmand province, southern Afghanistan. The young men head out on domination patrols aimed at denying the Taliban the upper hand - always aware when attacks are imminent, as the farmers and villagers flee their fields and homes. In between patrols they play computer games, call home and clean their weapons. Their attempts to work with the locals fall on stony ground; "If I talk, [the Taliban] will cut my throat," says one villager. Brilliantly edited, Metz's documentary, which has many of the hallmarks of classic war movies such as Come and See and has been compared with The Hurt Locker, captures the tedium, fear and machismo prevalent in army life - as well as a callousness and brutality that caused considerable controversy back in Denmark.

Image credit: Lars Skree

Screens with Susya

Watch Armadillo trailer here.

• Awards Critics’ Week Grand Prize, 2010 Cannes Film Festival; Best Documentary, London Film Festival