Tell Spring Not to Come This Year

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The title of this short but often powerful documentary directed by Saeed Taji Farouky and Michael McEvoy refers to the "fighting season" in Afghanistan, which starts in the spring and goes until the cold comes. Unlike other docs we've seen that focused on the American troops who had been fighting in the Middle Eastern country for an astonishing 13 years, this movie spotlights the Afghanistan National Army in its attempt to take over the defense of its nation from the Western allies -- or invaders, depending on who you ask.

Indeed, one of the young soldiers brazenly admits he hates the Americans, because of the heavy-handed way they treated the natives, at least initially. Others resent them because they know how much they've leaned on the better-trained and -equipped western coalition forces, and realize they must suddenly shoulder a much larger burden upon their leaving in 2014.

Interestingly, the filmmakers never attempt to assign names to the various soldiers we meet, and use limited title cards to let us know what's going on, beyond subtitles. Long stretches occur in which there's very little dialogue beyond shouts and screams, as the Afghani soldiers plunge into on chaotic encounter after another.

It's a deliberately discombobulating effect, as the audience often doesn't know which way is up. But a few familiar faces reoccur, from the grizzled commander to the seasoned officer and a handful of young, impressionable foot soldiers. Over 83 minutes we learn their desires, fears and doubts in intimate detail.

One thing that continually struck me was how social and verbal their interactions are, with each other and with the village people they encounter. Jabbering in Arabic and Farsi, these men live in a culture of constant talking. The officers talk to their men with brusque admonitions, and the men talk right back to them, often in barely civil tones.

A tribal elder seems reserved and submissive at first, telling the soldiers they can do whatever they want since they have guns, but his speech soon morphs into a tirade against them, the Taliban, the Americans and everyone else who have made a habit of turning the country into a battle zone over the decades. It's always the common people who suffer, he laments.

The soldiers are brave but not particularly effective in combat. Lacking the air support of the American helicopters or high-tech communications, the unit keeps getting pinned down in sand-blown compounds. All they can seem to do is waltz in somewhere, become trapped and call for help.

Still, their hearts are strong, even if their motives are unclear. Some are loyal to the central government, others see it as weak and corrupt. A few soldiers talk openly of joining the army because they were unemployed for so long and lacked other prospects. One or two seem motivated purely by a patriotic desire to do their duty and protect their people.

Though it's often a jumbled portrait, "Tell Spring Not to Come This Year" paints a picture of a country that is both very old and very new, ancient in its customs and culture but still trying to forge an identity independent of its various interlopers.