TELL SPRING NOT TO COME THIS YEAR

For over a year, Saeed Taji Farouky and Michael McEvoy - documentary filmmaker, photographer and author on the one hand, liaison officer and interpreter for the British army on the other - accompanied a company of the Afghan National Army (ANA) during their deployment in Helmand province, which is considered extremely dangerous. Tell Spring Not To Come This Year (2015) records what happens, observes the faces of the soldiers, allows them to tell us something, refrains from any kind of evaluation, dispenses with analysis and geopolitical assessment. And precisely for this reason: the strict internal perspective that the film focuses on one of the front lines of the “War on Terror” - the people fighting it. Over the course of its running time, it has the effect of posing ever more pressing questions: What are these men actually doing at their lost post in the midst of tribalistic chaos? But above all: why don't they give up? The simple answer that they are trying to improve living conditions in their country commands respect. No less the achievement of the filmmakers, which they convey to us without shying away from mortal danger.