SXSW Film Reviews

OCCUPATION: DREAMLAND

D: Garrett Scott and Ian Olds

Documentary Feature Emerging Visions

This surprisingly candid profile of an eight-man squad from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division is a little raw in spots, but what can you expect? Directors Scott and Olds are being shot at with semi-automatic weapons and RPGs. The film follows the soldiers on patrol in Fallujah, Iraq, during January 2004, just before the "city of mosques" exploded into violence against coalition forces in April. The soldiers rout ramshackle houses in search of hidden weapons, wake hollow-eyed women and children, apprehend the occasional detainee, and shoot the shit: about home, about their lives before enlistment, about why they joined the Army, and about what the hell they're doing in the desert on the other side of the world. There's documentary gold inside: footage of an appalling re-enlistment hard-sell, arguments about politics erupting between the men, Iraqi civilians literally seizing the camera and pleading for an audience. A less polished but canny complement to Control Room, the film is compelling in part because so little happens from moment to moment, underscoring the pointlessness of the occupation.

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Paramount, 7pm