A rare British story of military heroism

In October last year, British forces withdrew from Afghanistan after 13 years of fighting and the loss of 453 lives. While America has lauded its fighting men and women with big screen outings, the portrayal of UK forces has been less noticeable. Now Kajaki is looking to change this. Positive word of mouth and reviews are helping building momentum as the filmmakers look to reach a wider audience beyond its initial limited opening. Kajaki returns for a one-off screening at the Orpheus on Mon 23 March. Go here for ticket details.

Set in 2006, the film centres on a group of soldiers from 3 Para who are in charge of controlling the Kajaki Dam in the Helmand Province. After locating a suspected Taliban patrol, three soldiers move down from the hillside to engage the enemy. As they travel through a narrow ravine, one of the troops, Stu Hale from Patchway, sets off an old Russian land mine. What follows is deadly and tragic account of the soldiers’ attempts to survive and get back to safety.

Oscar and BAFTA award winning Producer Gareth Unwin (The Kings Speech, Zaytoun) spoke to B24/7 about the making of the film.

How did you first become involved in the project?

I have known the director, Paul Katis, for years now and I knew he was looking to direct his first feature. He brought me the script by Tom Williams about 10 months before filming started and I loved the writing. As soon as I read it, I thought there was an interesting story to be told. It was based on the original board of enquiry into the incident which was, of course, fairly dry. From there, Paul and Tom went to visit the parents of Corporal Mark Wright, who died during the action. They met all the parents after that and every encounter led to the script being finessed. Obviously, we didn’t change what happened on the day as it is based on a true set of events, so the structure was set but we could add flourishes in dialogue, technical details and the humour.

There must be a large number of events and actions during the Afghan conflict that could be made into films. What made you want to tell this story?

I have a deep seated sense of patriotism and a recognition that the work that our armed forces do. When you take the politics out of war, you can’t deny the bravery of those that are asked to serve. I have met veterans through projects I have worked on and I felt that I could apply my knowledge and experience to something that would resonate in something beyond it being just a piece of entertainment.

You have previously said that it isn’t a war film. So what genre would you say this belongs in?

I genuinely believe that it is a thriller. It is an edge of your seat film that has these incredible flourishes of action and lots of suspense, but running through it is a deep sense of humanity.

What role did the real life soldiers have in the film? How involved were they?

Each of the veterans had line of sight to the script and they could make comments, which we discussed in pre-production. Some of the cast met their counterparts and this took place in Colchester after the actors did their boot camp. We also had military advisors on the set through the shoot, some of whom knew the real soldiers. The major involvement came after the film was finished and we were ready to screen it for them. It was a really nerve-racking process because their critique was going to be the most important to us.

And what did they think of the final cut?

They loved it. They valued it as a piece of entertainment which was amazing when you think that it all happened only six years earlier. They were jumping out of their seats when the mines went off and they laughed at the banter.

You mentioned the bootcamp. How intensive was it?

It was a few days and fell within our UK rehearsal week. The guys were taken up to Friday Woods in Colchester where they were marched up and down hills for a few days. They learned how to wash themselves, carry a bergen and handle their rifle. They had to learn to move like a para and through the shoot in Jordan their actions were monitored by the military advisors. They really took to it, to the point where they would only refer to each other by their character’s names, which is quite rare. When we had the premiere, they were all back to first name terms, which was funny as they realised they had forgotten their fellow actors’ real names.

Despite the dark subject matter the film has a lot of humour in it. How important was this for you?

Well all the humour was a truism. I mean, the men singing happy birthday and joking about being legless after the explosions really happened. That forces gallows humour went into our film and I think we needed it as a pressure valve for the audience, who need time to regain their composure and be ready for the next sequence.

You have said that Kajaki is politically agnostic.

That’s true. One of the reasons Paul and Tom chose this story was that it is unique. It doesn’t have rounds fired in anger and there isn’t a clear and present Taliban threat. The real threat for the soldiers was the legacy of war with the Soviet minefield that the guys stumbled into.

Sometimes films like this have a clear message which can be seen as pro or anti war. Does Kajaki have a message?

For me, it’s leave the politics aside and honour the troops.

Since the 1940s and ’50s, we haven’t made many films about conflicts. For example, there haven’t been many films about Burma, The Falklands, etc. And even though it’s fairly recent, we haven’t made many about Iraq or Afghanistan. Why is that?

I think Britain in conflict has been a very political topic for many years now. Recent wars seem to take place far away and have more to do with politics rather than repelling an attack or threat. I think having an adult conversation about it is hard as no one would consider themselves pro-war and it would be a very dark heart that would say that. I am sure that in the near future we will look back at losing 453 lives in the Afghan theatre and ask whether it was worth it or whether we would do it again and it has taken us a while as a society to get to the point where we can have that conversation.

The film critic Mark Kermode has said that critics don’t make any difference when it comes to the box office success of a film. Do you agree?

That’s an interesting one and I don’t really know. Obviously, it is great if you have across the board positive reviews as we seem to have had, especially if that involves ordinary people seeing it and commenting on social media. Basically, you have to embrace the goodwill and positivity when it comes. The audience have become champions for the film and recommending others go and see it so there is value in everything from family and friends to critics.

What are your plans for releasing Kajaki to a wider audience?

Motivating a cinema audience is tricky and we had a great partner from the start with Vue Cinemas. We are now having conversations with Odeon and Showcase and they are picking up the film for other sites. The truth of it is we were never going to be in a position where we would open on one day across all chains. We couldn’t support that, so we broke it out on a platform model to incrementally increase the money we are spending on advertising. So if we open in 20 cities we haven’t touched before, we know what we need to motivate at a grass roots level.

Have you worked like this before?

No, this is unique. For a producer to do a direct deal with cinemas is very rare. Normally I’d take it to a sales agent and they would go to the distributor who would then go to the cinemas. We didn’t do that because we have a duty to support the charities we are working with ( Help for Heroes, The Royal British Legion, Walking With the Wounded and The Hashemite Commission for Disabled Soldiers) and this way we could secure them a much better position.

War films can be seen as action films and put people off. What would you say to anyone who isn’t sure whether to see Kajaki?

I would say look to the people we portray. They’re not firing guns and they are the brothers and sons from next door. They are ordinary people who happen to be professional soldiers. In the film we accurately portray the boredom, the routine and the relationships. It is not a load of dick jokes.  It’s being stuck on the side of a hill, fighting and not having much to eat. And when you see the guys you have come to care about getting hurt, I hope everyone realises that the legacy of war is as bad as the war itself. I still maintain that this isn’t a war film.