Starz Denver Film Festival must-see November 11 pick: The Kill Team

Again this year, Starz Denver Film Festival artistic director Brit Withey is offering his must-see picks for each day of the fest -- including many flicks that movie lovers might otherwise miss amid the flood of silver-screen goodies. Today, Withey highlights The Kill Team...

By Michael Roberts

November 11, 2013

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Again this year, Starz Denver Film Festival artistic director Brit Withey is offering his must-see picks for each day of the fest -- including many flicks that movie lovers might otherwise miss amid the flood of silver-screen goodies.

Today, Withey highlights The Kill Team.

The Kill Team Directed by Dan Krauss 7:15 p.m. Monday, November 11 UA Pavilions

The events at the heart of the documentary called The Kill Team made news at the time, but plenty of people haven't heard about incidents Withey describes as "absolutely terrible and despicable.

"There was this platoon, a company of soldiers in Afghanistan, and they were restless, I guess. They weren't feeling they were doing what they were trained to do, which is to go overseas and engage in firefights and kill people. So they worked out a strategy among themselves, about five or six of them, to collect weapons on the side from captured enemy combatants -- or they would miscount grenades and keep the extras for themselves. And then they would target Afghan civilians...just pick out people at random and kill them for the hell of it. Nobody they suspected of doing anything. Just anonymous nobodies."

In the end, the rogue soldiers were caught, "but what makes it even worse -- and this is all about as worse as it can be -- is that the filmmakers interview the vast majority of the people involved, and their degree of unrepentance is just staggering, eye-opening and tragic," Withey says.

For instance, "one of the people basically feels that if this person didn't have a gun at the moment, he was going to have one tomorrow, or hehad one yesterday -- 'and I just happened to get him now.'"

Look below to see a preview of The Kill Team, and be sure to visit our Show and Tell blog throughout the festival to see more of Brit's picks.

Send your story tips to the author, Michael Roberts.

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Michael Roberts began his career with Westword in 1990 as music editor. In 1999, he took on a new role, full-time media reporter, as author of a column called The Message. In 2008, he became the lead writer for Westword's news blog, The Latest Word, a position he held until January 2023. Michael continues to freelance for Westword, covering everything from business to sports and the media; he also contributes to Jazziz, a national music magazine. He holds a bachelor's degree from what is now Colorado Mesa University and master's degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Northwestern University.

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