Mein Herz der Finsternis

This is no dry documentary and illustrates its artistic and cinematic credentials by the literary title and the reference to 'Apocalypse Now' with its Navy Patrol Boat on a journey upriver. Here the four veterans from different sides have to face the killing fields of their war in Angola. This is a staggeringly beautifully photographed cathartic journey through African landscapes and through an inner journey of painful war memories into their heart of darkness. As they move upstream memories return and horror stories of the reality of war are told around the camp fire revealing different attitudes to the need for "cleansing". The injustice and insanity of war are revealed but the psychological message is more complex to decipher. Does it reveal the true humanity of man or does it illustrate what the secretary of the US army Thomas E White said in 2002 when talking about the film 'Black Hawk Down' that 'it's about the man next to you, that's all there is'. I guess it depends on how you define the 'man next to you'.