THE CONFLICT and the CASUALTIES OF WAR.

Madman proudly presents RESTREPO and THE MESSENGER – two films that respectively deal with modern warfare and the casualties thereof, available on DVD 16 February, 2011.

A National Geographic documentary production, RESTREPO takes place in what is considered to be one of the most dangerous postings of the war – the remote Korengal Valley in eastern Afghanistan – where the American soldiers of Second Platoon have secured a strategic outpost and named it in honour of the outfit’s fallen medic, PFC Juan Restrepo. 

This is the real ‘Hurt Locker’. Told in their own words, RESTREPO is the unflinching, on the ground story of the day to day lives of the soldiers of Second Platoon – a group of men who came to rely on each other under constant danger and emotional hardship, and were to become renowned as the “tip of the spear” for the American war effort in Afghanistan. 

From the lives of those on the front line, to those affected by the war at home – THE MESSENGER is the story of decorated combat soldier Will Montgomery (Ben Foster), recently returned from Iraq and assigned to the Army Casualty Notification service, a unit tasked with informing families of the death of their loved ones in the line of duty. Mentored by Capt. Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson), Montgomery must learn to detach himself from the emotional challenges that the job presents – but all that begins to dissolve when he meets Olivia (Samantha Morton)…

Nominated for two 2009 Academy Awards®, THE MESSENGER is a powerful and poignant work which demonstrates that true scars of war are often wrought at home, not on the battlefield.