Recently Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, the impregnable military base the size of Reading, has been handed over to the Afghan National Army. We've spent over a decade slogging it out with the Taliban. Now no more British soldiers remain at Camp Bastion, we scrutinize the British army's role in Afghanistan. Was this ever our war? It's the question emerging director, Tom Petch, asks us in this clever, reflective movie.Petch takes us back to 2006, a year of heated conflict; a small unit is sent on a three day patrol. An unexpected ambush from allied special forces in the region triggers an increase in Taliban attack, which prolongs the patrol for nearly two weeks. As the heat of the conflict intensifies, the unfortunately named Operation Icarus pushes individual to reach their limits.An already declining morale really builds speed when likeable Welshman, Taff, who is always cracking jokes and diffusing the tension in the unit takes a direct hit to the chest and is rushed to the trauma centre. The bullet hits all the boys hard and an out of touch captain fails to patch up the punctured morale, which bleeds away.A former tank officer in the Queen's Own Hussars, Tom Petch's army experience shows in the film. The familiar army characters are all very believable and the dialogue spot on, particularly the military lingo and the cutting banter, trademarks of the British army. As the conflict intensifies with more attacks from the Taliban, however, that friendly banter turn viscous and everyone starts taking personal digs.There's a story of class struggle and a captain's inability to discipline his unit. When a solider refuses to go on patrol, staff sergeant 'Sol' (Nicholas Beveny) fronts up and says 'Do you know what the f**k you're saying soldier?' Captain Richardson (Ben Righton) takes a more sympathetic tone, crouches down and tells him he can stay at the base helping the lieutenant with signals. Sergeant gives a disapproving nod to his captain.The captain comes across like a school teacher trying too hard to fit in with the kids and failing to earn their respect. He takes favourites and goes easy on people with softer voices. As one soldier remarks 'we all get the same medal, just some of us get shot at.' It highlights a palpable tension between ranks.But everyone in the unit struggles and the cinematography does a brilliant job of capturing the sense of isolation and abandonment that all the soldiers experience. The soldiers are 'out there like sitting ducks', as sergeant Sol puts it, without armoured vehicles, lacking ammunition and low on basic supplies. There's a sense they've been abandoned in the barren purgatorial landscape. And they're just holding up until it's time to go home.The Patrol isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea. Although the plots aimlessness may be a deliberate attempt to capture the soldiers sense of aimlessness, it does tax your patience. And like the soldiers on patrol you find yourself struggling to stay alert, feeling the sand settling in the corners of your eyes. The monotony of the patrol is occasionally broken by very realistic and heart thumping firefights, but there just isn't enough of it. Still, it's a great debut for a low budget film and paints a candid portrait of the war, highlighting how many of the boys' hearts just weren't in it.

a wonderful low budget movie!

Obviously very cheaply made but effective.

Ok but the film is short and seems to end before it gets started.

Good war that is a bit too short, The Patrol manages to be quite effective in its short run with some pretty good performances, tense war scenes and good drama. I enjoyed the film for what it was, but it could also have been longer as we never do see any British war films, and personally I feel that we need a lot more because, they have some interesting topics to tell on film, especially when it comes to war films. The cast do a fine job here and each actor brings something unique to the screen, and the characters are quite interesting. The film has some riveting moments, with a good dose of drama and it shows the toll of war on the soldiers serving. The film isn't perfect, but it's quite a good war film for what it tries to do, and if you enjoy a war film with well written characters, good action scenes and tense drama, then this film is worth seeing. War films are often hard to pull off, but with The Patrol, even if it's not perfect, it shows what warfare is like, and makes the viewer appreciate what soldiers do. There are better war films out there, but The Patrol is a good effort that deserves to be seen for its tense war scenes, good performances and riveting direction. The Patrol delivers a good hour and a half of tense storytelling and effective action to delight genre fans, and thought it doesn't break new ground, it's one of the better war pictures to come out in quite some time.

The wearing tedium of conflict is effectively evoked, broken occasionally by bursts of violence that are rightly harrowing.

A rough experience, bracingly free of the usual macho posturing that characterizes movies about the military, and a compassionate and humane portrait of modern soldiering.

First-time British writer-director Tom Petch makes a powerful impression with this tough, smart war movie on a shrewdly managed small scale, about a British army patrol in Afghanistan.

A well executed minor drama that casts a careful life on the inner lives of military personnel, and promises good things to come in terms of the young cast, and Tom Petch's future career.

This is an unsparing and occasionally bleak look at the frustrations of fighting an unwinnable war with inadequate gear.

It's a solid debut, with Petch's evocative location filming (in Morocco) and pyrotechnic flourishes belying his low budget.