SotW: As four young soldiers get ready to travel from their homes in Denmark to their assignment at Forward Operating Base Armadillo in Helmand Province, their feelings of excited anticipation clash with the fear their parents and girlfriends feel. Mads is ready to put his combat practice to the test; Daniel is a lively tattooed guy with boundless physical energy; Rasmus is the ambitious young platoon commander; and Kim is the group's no-nonsense medic. Over the next six months, days of boredom are punctuated with sudden violent attacks from the Taliban and awkward conversations with locals caught in the crossfire.
Emerging from the smoke and haze of war glorified by media, comes a war film unlike any other. Director Janus Metz arrives at Armadillo, alongside cameraman Lars Skree and documents the time newly arrived Danish soldiers spend at war. The filmmakers repeatedly risk their lives to produce this uncompromised and beautifully composed documentary, so meticulously constructed it could easily pass as a work of cinematic fiction.
About.com: Armadillo is another war documentary -- like The Battle For Marjah, Restrepo and Camp Victory, for example -- in which an 'embedded' filmmaker chronicles the deployment of troops to Afghanistan. In Armadillo, the troops and filmmaker happen to be Danish, and we are, through their eyes, presented with a somewhat different perspective on the war and the impact it has on those who experience it.
Cut Print Review: If Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar winning wartime thriller The Hurt Locker illustrated how “War is a drug”, Danish filmmaker Janus Metz Pedersen’s gripping documentary Armadillo proves it. Showing incredible courage and devotion to his craft, Pedersen and his talented cameraman Lars Skree put their lives on the line to document the ongoing war in Afghanistan, where the Taliban still maintain a strong and deadly presence.
