The Patrol: Film Screening and Q&A with Director

3rd April, 6.15pm: Duke’s at Komedia Cinema, Brighton, UK

The War and Media Network and the School of Media, Film and Music (MFM) University of Sussex are pleased to host a film screening of The Patrol with a Q&A with Director, Tom Petch.  The Patrol is the first British fiction film to focus on the conflict in Afghanistan and was winner of the 2013 Raindance Best Feature Film.

FILM SYNOPSIS

Written and directed by Tom Petch, ex-Army, The Patrol takes a piercing look at the conflict in Afghanistan through the eyes of a British Army patrol who, alongside the Afghan Army, are fighting the Taliban, an invisible, deadly enemy. When a Special Forces Operation prompts a Taliban counter attack in Helmand Province the unit’s three day patrol hits double figures. Faced with low ammunition, injury and rising tensions under the command of a captain who is out of touch with his men, the exhausted, disillusioned soldiers question their role in the war.  Watch the trailer for the film here

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ABOUT THE FILM

Examining the gritty realities of warfare THE PATROL uses fictional characters to explore the war in a way a documentary never could. As the first British feature film about the conflict in Afghanistan it asks important questions about a war which has claimed the lives of 440 British servicemen and women to date, exceeding the Iraq war death toll. With the scheduled withdrawal of all NATO troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014 these questions could not be more pertinent.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

THE PATROL is the debut feature film by British filmmaker Tom Petch. Having served in the British Army for eight years including Special Forces and the conflict in Bosnia, Petch meticulously researched the equipment, language and tactics of the war in Afghanistan, drawing the problems faced by the patrol directly from real accounts of British Army experiences in Afghanistan.

Petch says:

I was so angry with the way the war was being portrayed, with no commentary on how it was being fought or explanations for all the soldiers being killed. No-one was asking the right questions. This is my view. I have been as honest as I can.

 INFO

To book tickets for the Screening contact Dukes at Komedia

For more information about the film visit The Patrol website and their Facebook Page