JIRGA

From director Benjamin Gilmour and actor Sam Smith comes an important and almost unbelievable new Australian film, shot in the dangerous borderlands between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Retired Australian soldier Mike (Smith) is haunted by memories of the unarmed man he accidentally shot during his time in Afghanistan. Determined to make things right, he sets off on a treacherous journey through Taliban and ISIS-controlled territory to find the victim’s family and place himself at the mercy of the Jirga – Afghanistan’s tradition of village justice.

A film whose uncomfortably raw subject matter is matched by the extremity in which it was created, Jirga is a profound and remarkable new work from writer/director Benjamin Gilmour (Son of a Lion, MIFF 2008). The result of months spent trekking through Pakistan and Afghanistan by Gilmour and Smith, Jirga is literally dangerous filmmaking in action, a courageous effort to cut through the propaganda and stereotypes and reveal the human tragedy behind our involvement in the War on Terror.