Korengal

Korengal (2014) is Sebastian Junger's war documentary, available to watch online on iFILM. It carries on from Restrepo — same valley in eastern Afghanistan, same platoon of American soldiers, same commanders — but turns the lens away from the firefights and toward what the men carry in their heads.

Junger built the film from footage shot across fifteen months beside paratroopers at a tiny remote outpost. There's almost no battle chronology here. What you get instead are the soldiers talking: about fear, about how a body gets used to incoming rounds, about the odd ache to be back at the front once they're safely home. Looking straight into the camera, they try to put words to what the valley did to them and why a person would ever want to be that close to dying.

This isn't a film about heroism; it's an attempt to convey how combat actually feels from the inside — exactly what its tagline promises. One for viewers who want honest nonfiction without swelling music or voiceover grandstanding. Stream Korengal (2014) online on iFILM.