Fighting The Taliban

RORY PECK TRUST AWARDS: WINNER FEATURES AWARD 2007 FIGHTING THE TALIBAN is the exclusive first-hand account of one of the longest battles fought by British soldiers in Afghanistan. This film reveals how the war on terror is really being fought on the ground and the formidable scale of the task facing British troops in Afghanistan. Ignoring Ministry of Defence orders, filmmaker Sean Langan hitches a ride with the Afghan army who, along with British soldiers, are on a mission to retake the strategically critical town of Garmser in Helmand province. The assault was expected to take 24 hours but it soon runs into difficulty, leading to six days of relentless attacks and counter attacks, captured from start to finish by Langan. The front line was often less than 100 yards from the compound where the 17 British troopers established their forward base and the ferocity of fighting saw the British officers call in a record number of NATO air strikes. Langan documents the bravery and increasing exhaustion of the soldiers as their supplies of food and ammunition run low, and morale even lower. FIGHTING THE TALIBAN shows a battle which is symptomatic of the wider war the British troops are fighting. Overstretched and outnumbered, are the British troops fighting an unwinnable war? PRESS “His (Sean Langan) film is not only extraordinary but also gives a totally different view on the war in Afghanistan to the one you see on the news.” The Guardian “Dispatches did an important public service when that wonderful, slightly gonzo television reporter Sean Langan went with nonchalant bravery to watch the long-running war in Afghanistan.” The Daily Telegraph “Langan shows the chaos and boredom, pointlessness, fear and exhaustion, as well as the banter and tea breaks.” The Guardian “If these brave, fascinating and nerve-wracking films are anything to go by, the stern rhetoric of the war on terrorism masks a distinctly threadbare reality.” Financial Times “Journalists often make the job of reporting under life-threatening conditions look rather to easy, but it is to this film’s credit that Sean Langan looks genuinely petrified as he attempts to make contact with the Taliban in Afghanistan.” The Daily Telegraph

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