Jirga Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Jirga Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 3, 2019

A well known English proverb states “necessity is the mother of invention”, and for a recent cinematic example, look no further than the somewhat problematic but often riveting and at least occasionally disturbing Jirga, a film which was shot pretty much on the fly in Afghanistan, as detailed by writer-director Benjamin Gilmour in an interview included on this disc as a supplement. Jirga is kind of hilariously promoted in its trailer as being Australia’s submission to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, which may lead some to wonder what language they’ve been speaking Down Under all this time, but all joking aside, Jirga (the title alludes to a tribal council) documents the almost quest like journey of an Aussie soldier named Mike Wheeler (Sam Smith) who returns to Afghanistan to atone for the unnecessary death of a villager at Mike’s hands (and/or gun) during hostilities in the war with the Taliban.

That “invention” mentioned above came courtesy of a proposed production in Pakistan for this film that didn’t materialize, leaving Gilmour and Smith semi-stranded and struggling to decide whether to try to shoot the film in Afghanistan or return home. A kind of perilous shoot ensued, with the character of the soldier forging through forboding (and forbidden) environments on his trek to make things right. The film attempts to toe a fine line between quasi-documentary and outright (fictionalized) drama, to variant success. A kind of random attribution of subtitles to various scenes (I guess that’s were the “foreign language” part comes in) tends to be kind of distracting, and the film arguably engages in a bit of screed like sermonizing about how Western incursions in this remote land have created all sorts of “ripple” effects, as well as how the need for forgiveness should outweigh the need for revenge.

Jirga Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Jirga is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lightyear Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.84:1. Benjamin Gilmour kind of humorously recounts buying the one and only Sony a7S available in Islamabad in order to shoot this film, but he doesn't mention if he captured things at native 4K or what the DI's resolution was. Aside from some kind of odd contrast issues, which I frankly am uncertain are due to the environment or the technology, this is a sharp and well detailed looking transfer. Things do look rather blanched in the many outdoor scenes, with a tendency toward kind of beige-gray undertones. Some darker scenes can look a bit noisy at times, but this has no major compression anomalies that I noticed.

Jirga Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Jirga features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 tracks that kind of ping pong between English and Pashto (with forced English subtitles some, but not all, of the time). The surround track isn't really a showcase, probably due to budget, but it does provide consistent engagement of the side and rear channels for ambient environmental effects in the many outdoor scenes. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout.

Jirga Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Jirga - Trailer (1080p; 1:30) has some really hard to hear audio.


• The Making of Jirga (1080p; 7:36) seems to be culled from an Aussie television show, and features an engaging interview with Benjamin Gilmour.

Jirga Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jirga might have benefited from a bit more nuance instead of beating the viewer over the head with one soldier's very personal version of PTSD. Still, its message of reconciliation and forgiveness is certainly relevant in this war torn age. Technical merits are generally solid for those considering a purchase.