A quick recommendation

Jérémie Lebel

A lot of media content has been published about Libya since the beginning of the uprising and especially since the first salvos of the NATO, which began on March 19th of 2011. Yet, we rarely read or see features that really were shot on the ground, with the intent of showing how the fighters themselves live their war, and how they carry on in this maelstrom of fire they were caught in.

I recently had the chance of watching a documentary on Al-Jazeera called "Holding the Line", by Patrick Wells. I heartily recommend anyone interested in the Arab Spring to watch it. The journalist followed a small group of fighters near Misrata for three weeks and focused on showing war as they saw and lived it. The result is nothing short of brilliant. No Hollywood-style staging here, nor any overwrought pathos. What we get to see is a real war, where fights exchange shots from afar, where they eat together, where they talk about shellings like they would talk about bad weather (the unusual becoming the usual).

Note, in particular, the eerie oddness of the scene shot in night vision, with one of the fighters describing his experience with killing. In that scene you can witness all the banal horror of violence.

Be careful, though: the ending can hit home hard. Death doesn't care about justice when it strikes.