24/27
In the winter of 1862, during the Civil War, the US Army sends a volunteer company to patrol the unexplored western territories. Minervina had the set built in Montana and then let the cast live there for two months. The dialogue and thoughts expressed are those the actors came up with while living in the wilderness imagining they were soldiers in the Civil War.. Damned: Winter 1862, a volunteer unit of Union soldiers is sent to defend a mountainous territory, we are not told where it is, not even names we do not know the soldiers. After the regular troops moved in, under the command of a John Brown-style patriarch with a flowing beard, his teenage sons enlisted as well. The soldiers are mixed, some middle-aged, even old, most in their thirties. Everyone lacks military experience, They share knowledge and skills are transferred. We witness mobile guards, shots at distant riders. The buffalo was shot and slaughtered. The bleak landscape, the hills, the mountain meadows, the drifts of snow, the cold meals that are running out, all contribute to the development of a sense of existential despair. The battle is going on, we don’t see the enemy, we see unit losses. War is hell, especially when you no longer know why you are there. Mostly a Ken Loach-style film with no established day-to-day dialogue and lots of ordinary people acting, amateur like soldiers. This improvisation leads to philosophical, religious and political discussions around campfires. Some of them are not welcome. But that’s less of a distraction than this raw depiction of men at war. Written and directed by Roberto Minervini, 8/10.