After "Armadillo"'s first screening in Cannes yesterday trades are out with positive calls for Janus Metz' documentary feature:
Absorbing and thought-provoking, vivid and frightening
Leslie Felperin of Variety describes the film as a gut-punching docu going hand-in-hand with Kathryn Bigelow's 2010 Oscar winner: ""Armadillo" proves just how well "The Hurt Locker" captured the mixture of boredom, fear, brutality and locker-room machismo that makes up the day-to-day routine of a frontline soldier. (The two films would make a great rep-house double-bill)."
Ray Bennett of The Hollywood Reporter, who calls it vivid and frightening, says "While the men are Danish, there is a universality to their story and a vitality in the filmmaking that should see the documentary in demand around the world". And he concludes "Metz and his cameraman provide a real-life vision of what a hurt locker is really all about".
Allan Hunter of Screen Daily: "Armadillo is both absorbing and thought-provoking; qualities that make it a significant addition to the documentaries on the war on terror". Its "authenticity lends it a unique selling point".
About the film
Janus Metz' feature-length documentary "Armadillo" portrays the loss of innocence of two young soldiers, Mads and Daniel, who are on their first mission in Afghanistan. The film is a journey into the minds of the soldiers and an attempt to uncover the nature of war. A drama fuelled by psychological dilemmas, this character-driven story takes a close look at the clash between politics and realism as the international community's intentions of democratization collide head-on with the terrifying complexity of the war in Afghanistan.
Armadillo is the name of one of the Danish camps in the Afghan Helmand province, where director Janus Metz and cinematographer Lars Skree followed the soldiers and their actions at close hand over a period of six months. This film is produced by Ronnie Fridthjof and Sara Stockmann of Fridthjof Film.