Medina Wasl, an Iraqi village, hides in the sands of the Mojave Desert. The town houses hundred of Iraqi insurgents who are waiting to r revenge and violence on our servicemen.

Medina Wasl is one of the mock villages that make up a complicated US Army training simulation created to prepare soldiers heading to Iraq. The training base puts our soldiers into realistic situations involving insurgents, political assassinations, collateral damage and cultural conflicts.

The village is populated by Iraqi immigrants who role play a number of different characters to confront the soldiers. The film introduces us to these people who are working to bring their culture to the training. This is the film’s most fascinating element. The townsfolk live strange double lives. At work they pretend to grieve over their family members being killed or complain about petty issues. After work they labor to achieve their citizenship. We are given a good look at these fine folk who are doing their best to ease some of the culture shock for our soldiers heading into their former homeland.

The filmmakers Tony Gerber and Jesse Moss (Rated-R: Republicans in Hollywood) have released a captivating documentary that is notably without an agenda. The war in Iraq has become such a lightening rod that any discussion about anything connected to it immediately raises red flags with both the left and right. Before the release of this documentary it had become commonplace for films discussing the war to be slathered in political agenda. This film avoids any such harping and focuses on presenting the facts at hand.The movie has little to do with the war itself. It focuses on the actors and soldiers and their conflict, both prepared and real.

This is a quality documentary that lets the subject matter speak for itself, like documentaries should. This is a great pick if you have any interest in our current wars or the military in general.


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Labels: documentary, film, movie review, war