This is the other end of soldering in the Middle East from Jarhead. When many American soldiers in the Afghan and Iraqi invasions seemed to sit around waiting for something to happen while guided missiles and the air force did all the work overhead, some – like the squad in this film – found themselves out on a limb with almost no support, pinned down by enemy fire often.

If you're a leftie, you'll be thinking to yourself 'sure, but they shouldn't have been there in the first place' through the entire film, but directors Hetherington and Junger don't take a moral position, they just want to tell you what it's like by walking alongside these men – even when the bullets start flying.

After establishing a beachhead in what the film claims is one of the most dangerous areas in the whole Afghan conflict, the soldiers then have to go deeper into enemy territory to establish a makeshift base. From there they have to try and convince the locals they come in peace and will provide jobs while keeping their eyes open for Taliban and their agents.

There's an urgent and very scary style, one Hetherington would pay for with his life to achieve in a later photojournalism project.