First Kill

Coco Schrijber deals with the other side of heroism and trench romance – the fascination of killing in war, the pleasure of legitimate destruction.  In interviews with veterans and war reporters (incl. Michael Herr, co-author of FULL METAL JACKET and APOCALYPSE NOW), she pursues the question of how the power to decide over life or death can become a habit, even an addiction.  Sometimes working closely with the statements of those interviewed, at other times reversing this method, the film works with alienating effects and aestheticized landscape tableaus, in which the discrepancy between civilized sublimation and primal drive become tangible.