Virgil Films has announced the Blu-ray release of Sebastian Junger's
Korengal. The filmmaker's Oscar-nominated 2010 documentary,
Restrepo, dropped viewers into the thick of battle in the War in Afghanistan. Now, with this equally visceral followup, Junger focuses on the state of mind of U.S. soldiers after they've left the war.
Korengal arrives on Blu-ray on September 9th.
Synopsis:
Korengal, named for the Afghan valley where
Restrepo took place, picks up where the earlier film left off... the same men, the same place, the same commanders, but a very different look at the experience of war. The film, directed by author Sebastian Junger ("The Perfect Storm"), explains how war works, what it feels like and what it does to the young men who fight it.
As one soldier cheers when an enemy fighter is killed, another looks into the camera and asks if God will ever forgive him and his comrades for all of the killing. As one grieves the loss of his friend in combat, another explains why he missed the war after his deployment ended and he would go back in a heartbeat if he could. Every bit as intense and affecting as
Restrepo,
Korengal goes a step further in bringing the war into living rooms back home.
Junger steers clear of politics to simply present the troops' conflicted souls. One soldier explains how he was so afraid during his time in Korengal that he pretended the surrounding mountains were the mountains near his Oregon home. Stunningly, when interviewed after leaving the war, he blankly says he'd rather be back in Afghanistan than at home. Junger's remarkable film is full of such seeming contradictions, making it gripping viewing from start to finish.
"In a series of expertly edited interviews conducted with infantrymen on their way home after a year in the Korengal Valley, Junger exposes us to the war's psychological toll," said Tirdad Derakhshani of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Bill Goodykoontz of the Arizona Republic said, "Taken together,
Restrepo and
Korengal bring us about as close to the experience [of war] as we can, or would want, to get." The Boston Herald's James Verniere said, "You go to war with the Hemingway you have. Ours is Sebastian Junger.
Korengal is riveting, you-are-there filmmaking."
Virgil Films has yet to detail tech specs or special features.