En terrain miné

This movie once it gets going, it really gets crazy! I will say the first 30 or so minutes were VERY slow, and I was on the verge of being bored...but I'm very glad I stuck it out, because once it gets moving ...it never lets up.

The carnage is very realistic, and the reaction of the men feels very authentic as well.

It's very intense, and it shows the bravery of these men.

We all owe our respect to these men, far too often we forget that we didn't go into Iraq alone, right or wrong (reason for going) England, and a few others stuck by us and went to fight in a war that wasn't their war. We owe them our thanks.

This film is unlike any other as there is almost no, actually I don't think there is any firefights, but it's action packed in a way that isn't a popcorn flick.

I was 21 at 1973, only 4 month after my army service, mandatory of course, as is army service in Israel, i just finished 3 years of hard service, 4/5 of it under constant fire, i was at the Suez canal and the Egyptians were shooting at us non stop, we did not respond, ammo was in short supply, and we just tried to keep our posts. Then, on September, all the Arab countries surrounding Israel issued an attack, it was Yom Kippur, our holiest day of the year, most of the soldiers were at home, we were attacked from all sides, transportation arrived to soldier houses and took all to the war, me too. I met my tank crew at the south desert, we got the tank on the truck and headed to the fight zone, few kilometers from there we drove off the truck and headed south, to try and stop the Arab tanks, we fought the whole day, watching our tanks get hit by rpg rockets, and by the second day we were ordered to drive behind the Egyptians and try to block the second wave of Arabic tanks that was crossing the canal, on the way to the canal, we were hit by an rpg, the gunman died immediately, me and the 2 crew members managed to get out, i shot the guy with the rpg, but his friends on a jeep escaped and informed others about us, so, 100 kilometers from any Israeli army, in the desert, an area full of our own mines, intended to block a possible Arabic attack, there were us, me, the driver, and a seriously wounded loader. want to know what happened to us? watch the film, it is really our crew's story! we stayed there 7 days, no water, with thousands of mines around us, the heat was 50 plus Celsius, we were shot, buried by tanks, but we survived.

Like most people with military experience I find conventional war films a bit irritating – Implausible plot lines and ridiculous dialogue along with inaccurate uniforms and weapons tend to detract from the overall impression. The recently released movie Kajaki – the true story is, in the exception to this trend, and an important contribution to the national mood of reflection on the Afghan conflict.

Every aspect of the film is grittily authentic, right down to the banter between the blokes, the detail on the T shirts and the tattoos.

The incident will be familiar to many – in 2006 a patrol from 3 Para stationed at the Kajaki dam wander inadvertently into a legacy minefield from the soviet era with the inevitable unpleasant consequences. What sets this film apart from the crowd is the complete lack of sanitised pastiche violence and a storyline that sticks as closely as possible to the known facts, having had access and co-operation from the surviving members of the patrol, if not from the MOD itself. The movie scrupulously avoids being drawn into discussions about the controversies of the Afghan campaign and the level of resources supplied to the deployed forces, preferring instead to focus completely on the individual soldiers and the events of the day.

As a surgeon with extensive experience of landmine injuries, I was hugely impressed with the level of detail in the depiction and treatment of the injuries and the completely unsentimental depiction of the actions that day. Writing in the Sun, Jeremy Clarkson explained that even though he had taken an interest in the Afghan conflict and had been out to see soldiers on deployment, he had absolutely no idea what the reality of battle and injury entailed until he saw the film. I am certain that many civilians and even some serving servicemen will feel the same after seeing the Kajaki movie.

Having been released at the same time as the annual ceremonies of remembrance and, co-incidentally, at the same time as the centenary of the First world war and the draw-down from Afghanistan, it is important to remind the UK population that war is not all about artistic installations at the Tower of London, beautiful though those may be. With the Army having the lowest headcount in over a century, the population it serves is more disconnected than ever from the military – Kajaki conveniently reminds everyone about the realities of conflict.

Dan Jarvis MP, himself a former Parachute Regiment officer brought up this very point at Defence Questions in the House of Commons and secured an assurance from the Defence Secretary that he would see the film in person. It should be required viewing for a far wider audience.

Having served this film is often too painful to watch (the reason for my giving it a 9/10). It expresses the suffering and comradeship of warfare.

This isn't just a film it's an education for a society disassociated from war. For those critics war isn't glorious or romantic. It's dirty and boring, and yes, people screw up. If you're stuck in a minefield without all the Gucci kit it's a bayonet and you're belt buckle, and it's hot and tiring and you make mistakes. Soldiers (at least the Toms) don't speak received English (so maybe you might have to pay more attention to what is being said)and yes they swear, live with it!

There are plenty of wonderful war films where the (usually American) protagonists win the day with either a fashionable injury or glorious death; this isn't one of them. There is however humour and pathos in war and this expressed in loads. If everyone knew what war was really like nobody would want anything to do with one.

There's only a handful of so called "war films" I consider to be films about the actual reality of war. HBO's mini-series 'Generation Kill' is probably the most realistic when it comes to the depiction of modern warfare - but 'Kajaki' (also known as 'Kilo Two Bravo') gives it a run for its money: this criminally under-seen masterpiece should be considered a modern classic. The production values are fantastic; the cinematography, the script and the direction are absolutely flawless - but you won't notice them. What you will notice is the outstanding ensemble of actors, portraying characters in a way you forget you're watching a movie. They will make you cringe, laugh, cry and hold your breath in shocked disbelief and utter horror.

This film had me literally on the edge of my seat the entire time, but what really grabs you by the gut is not just the suspense and the horror; it's the relationships between these soldiers and how they look out for each other. How close men become when their lives depend on each other has probably rarely been depicted on screen with the intensity and no-bullshît, keep-it-real attitude as is the case here. And knowing that what you're seeing actually happened only adds to the experience (for this film IS an experience). Definitely not the kind of war film that you come across very often. Superb. 9 stars out of 10.

Favorite films: http://www.IMDb.com/list/mkjOKvqlSBs/

Lesser-Known Masterpieces: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls070242495/

Favorite Low-Budget and B-Movies: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls054808375/