Calendar – Past Event

Dirs./Prods.: Tony Gerber and Jesse Moss

The US military has built a billion-dollar Middle East village in the Mojave Desert: a simulated Iraq, complete with hundreds of Iraqis employed to play civilians and insurgents, terrorist suspects, grieving mothers and innocent shopkeepers. The filmmakers take a smart fly-on-the-wall approach to much of the action, as in-training Army recruits enter “Medina Wasl,” trying to quell uprisings and cajole locales. Full Battle Rattle observes Army officers explaining local customs to a confused force, under orders to bring “peace and stability” to a place they know nothing about — and one that appears to be disintegrating before their eyes. The movie could be read as a surreal, hilarious goof on the military if the play-acting failures of the troops didn’t look so realistic and if thousands of real lives weren’t on the line halfway around the world.