Smile & Wave

The International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan is 'interlocked in a cultural interplay of gratitude and contempt, conflict and harmony'. This documentary follows the youngsters of the Dutch Army Alfa Group on a three-month tour in 2003, outlining an operation of quiet impotence, frustration and the occasional gratifying moment. Colonel de Kolf laments the necessity of 'kissing some unsavoury characters to get things done'; Sgt Dorenbus sees his platoon's inability to be involved in policing a student demo (which ends with 14 dead) as emblematic of the ISAF's indecisiveness, weakness and irrelevance.