In the spring of 2021, American troops left Afghanistan after two full decades of warfare in that centuries-long troubled region. The war in Afghanistan is also the longest war in which the US has ever participated, and the award-winning and Oscar-nominated director Matthew Heineman (the documentaries Cartel Land and City of Ghosts and the feature film A Private War) brings us a poignant story of what those last months before the return of the Taliban to power. Even in earlier films, Heineman led us into some crisis areas. In Cartel Land, it was parts of Mexico where the local population is trying to organize into local militias to fight the cartels, and in City of Ghosts, it was an area then under ISIS control.
Stylistically, “Retrograde” is very similar because again it is one of those documentaries where the author is almost like a fly on the wall. He does not get involved in the story, but only records what is happening around him and films it, and this film could be described in the simplest way as a literal documentation of the disaster and the collapse of the system. The Heineman documentary begins and ends with poignant scenes from the airport as countless Afghans try to grab a seat on the last few planes leaving the country as the Taliban take over. There is a lot of symbolism in these scenes and it reminded me of the footage of the American leaving Vietnam and the countless residents of the southern part of that country trying to squeeze into the last ship leaving.
And just as you must have felt betrayed by the Americans almost half a century ago, all those Afghans must have felt the same way in the spring of 2021. At the beginning, we see the American soldiers who are still maintaining the fragile peace and training the Afghan army, which is still functioning. so-so organized while the Americans are there to watch their backs. In the foreground is the young Afghan general Sami Sadat, the army commander in charge of the fight against the Taliban. And that man acts resolutely, competently, like a patriot ready to deal with the Taliban, but once the American soldiers receive the order to leave Afghanistan, it will become clear what will happen.
And after the American Green Berets left Afghanistan, having previously destroyed an incredible amount of ammunition, weapons and equipment, Heineman and his team remained in Afghanistan and recorded what was happening. And what was happening was complete chaos. An army in complete disintegration that is losing battle after battle, the Taliban that are getting closer to Kabul day by day and are taking over town after town as if in a game. And the young general who tries to convince first himself and then his soldiers that it is worth fighting and that all is not lost. When one thinks that 20 years of war and who knows how many dead and wounded during that period in Afghanistan came down to something like that, one has to wonder what was the point of it all? Why was there a war there for so long, only for two full decades later to return to where it was?