Sebastian Junger takes another look at soldiers at war in “Korengal”

Film director and journalist Sebastian Junger recovered some unused material and interviews filmed as part of the Oscarnominated war documentary “Restrepo” to relate in “Korengal” how soldiers in extreme situations experience war.

“Restrepo” (2010) was the result of a yearlong filming by Junger and his partner, graphic reporter Tim Hetherington (who died in 2011 in the Libyan conflict), while they were embedded with a platoon stationed on a hill in Afghanistan’s dangerous Korengal Valley.

That first documentary had no narrator or interviews, seeking to give the civilian moviegoer a direct, upclose combat experience without intermediaries.

With “Korengal,” Junger delves deeper into soldiers’ motivations and reflections.

“Many in the audience will be surprised to hear that a lot of soldiers miss the war” when they are withdrawn, Junger said, adding that “Korengal” is an original production because “we haven’t reused any images.”

The final result is a story in which scenes of the adrenaline rush of firefights, the indolence of dead hours at the front and the confessions of young soldiers at the Restrepo base camp are intercut to create an emotional connection between viewers and the leading characters.

The Restrepo base was closed in 2010 after four years of operations that left nearly 50 U.S. soldiers dead in numerous skirmishes with Afghan guerrillas.

Junger and Hetherington shot their film between 2007 and 2008, after which they interviewed in Italy troops returning home in order to discover their impressions.