Zen blog post in Russian
https://dzen.ru/a/advhgv7HZHy88YAZ
THESE ARE NOT MOVIES, THESE ARE FACTS.
This is the darkest level of cinema, with almost no artistic treatment. It's not "about politics", but about real mechanisms: genocides, wars, propaganda, the dismantling of people and systems.
After watching these films, the illusions disappear that evil is not an exception, it is a byproduct of the system. Decisions are made at the top, the consequences are borne at the bottom, and responsibility is blurred, no one feels guilty. A system can be rational, actions can be logical, and the result is a disaster.
1) Restrepo. No strategy, just survival. The senselessness, burnout, and "normalization" of war without glorification.
Restrepo is not about war. This is the war itself, filmed without pathos and excuses. There are no heroes here, just people stuck between fear and an order. The camera doesn't turn away anywhere — dirt, sweat, blood, screams, senseless deaths. Patriotism rots faster than bodies here. The whole truth is without stars, without honor, without gloss.
There is no heroic music here. There are no "great meanings". There is not even a feeling that something historically important is happening. There is only a position. Mud. Fear that becomes routine. No comments. Without morals. No distance. War doesn't look like a disaster as long as you live in it. It looks like a job. Like a shift. Like a day that you just have to get through. It's a condition. Where the meaning dissolves. Where goals become an abstraction. Where only a simple task remains: to live until tomorrow.
Are you waiting for the movie to explain something? What will be the output? What will show "why all this"? No. Because sometimes there is no "why". There is only a process that is ongoing because it has already started.
The scariest thing about this movie is not the shooting. And the silence between them. Moments where nothing happens — and that's why it becomes clear that it can last indefinitely. Without a climax. Without a denouement. It doesn't make sense.
If you still want to talk about the "romance of war" after that, you just haven't watched Restrepo. Or they didn't see what they showed you.
Restrepo (2010)
2) The Battle of Chile. How the state collapses in real time. The destruction of illusions about "democracy will protect itself" and about the mechanisms of seizing power.
This is not a reconstruction. Not analytics in hindsight. This is a real—time process - how the country is going to collapse, step by step, day by day. Without pathos. No warning music. Without the feeling that "now there will be a point of no return." Because the point of no return always looks like a normal day.
The director doesn't explain anything, he fixes it. And that's why it's getting uncomfortable. Strikes. Street clashes. Polarization. Propaganda that ceases to be a background and becomes a tool. And all this is not chaos. It's a process. The 1973 military coup in Chile in this film does not look like a sudden catastrophe. It looks like the logical conclusion of a chain of decisions, compromises and mistakes.
No one planned to "destroy everything." Everyone did "their own thing." Everyone thought they were in control of the situation. And that's why everything got out of control. Are you looking for the guilty here? They are there. But it's not just them that's the problem. The problem is how easily the system allows itself to be brought to a point where there are no more options left. Where compromise becomes weakness. Where the dialogue turns into an imitation. Where strength becomes the only argument. This movie is not about Chile. It's about the illusion that "we won't have that." The most unpleasant thing is to watch and find out. Phrases. Intonation. Logic. And understand that such processes never look like the "beginning of the end." They look like ordinary politics. Until the very end.
There are no winners here. Here, hope turns into the sound of gunfire and crunching bones. This is how it looks when the people believe, and the government decides to shoot.
The Battle of Chile Film Trilogy (1975, 1976, 1979)
3) For Sama. The civil war through the eyes of an ordinary person. Rage, pain, and powerlessness in the face of the reality of war.
"For Sama" is not a movie, it's a scream. You're used to watching war from the sidelines. Through the screen. Through the news. Through a convenient distance. "For Sama" destroys this distance. The camera is not watching — she lives in hell. You see the city collapsing, how life is dying, how this life is turning into ruins. There is no propaganda, no distance, no escape. Only sirens, blood, dust and the very center of the apocalypse.
There is no "front line" or "analytics" here. There is no usual division into maps, summaries, and comments. There is life. Which continues where it should no longer be.
The director is not shooting a war. She films her life inside her. Home. Child. Love. And all this is under bombs. The Syrian civil war is not an event or background here. It's Wednesday. Where choice is a luxury. Where to "stay or leave" is not a matter of strategy, but a matter of survival.
Do you want to remain a spectator? It won't work. Because this film does the impossible — it removes the boundary between "there" and "here". It's not the statistics you're hearing. You hear a voice that speaks directly. And that's where it gets really uncomfortable. Because the last excuse disappears — "it's far away." No, not far away. It's just not with you. While.
The hardest thing in this movie is not the destruction. And not even death. The hardest thing is a life that goes on despite everything. A laughing child. Conversations. Hope. Against the background of something that shouldn't exist. And that's what breaks it. Because it becomes clear that a person gets used to everything. Even to hell.
And if after that it still seems to you that the war is "news", then you are still watching it from a safe place. And maybe that's the difference.
For Sama (2019)
YouTube (official trailer)
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My hobbies are history, philosophy, psychology, music, economics, politics, and sociology. I write about this and much more. Professional model. She has performed at international music festivals (vocals, dancing, imitation of vocalists). I am studying at the Academy of Arts - the film and art industry, I am a producer and the owner of a video studio.
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