The film explores Canada's role in Afghanistan and the timeless tragedy of what it means to lose a loved one to war. | dG1femVCYndUd0FzRUU
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Breaking news from Afghanistan, another Canadian soldier has been killed.
00:10Since Mark was eight years old, he always dreamt to be a soldier.
00:16Diab's parents moved him and his two sisters from Lebanon to Canada in search for a better
00:20life.
00:21In Lebanon, traditionally, the only son doesn't join the army.
00:24I said to him, Mark, you know what?
00:28Remember one thing.
00:29Now it's not anymore the Nintendo games.
00:32Your life is on the line.
00:35I just told them that I know he's a brave person.
00:38He loves his country and he wants to defend it, and I don't want to stand in the way of
00:43that.
00:44Because I love him, I want to do everything for him.
00:53At the time, you know, it's his life.
00:55We were his family.
00:56I mean, he cared about all of us.
00:58All he wanted to do was make everybody proud.
01:00He didn't just want to be a soldier for the fun of it.
01:03He really had a purpose.
01:05A soldier of freedom.
01:07That's Mark.
01:09Every time time passes and getting closer to the deployment, he was making sure that
01:16we do understand that he wants to go to Afghanistan.
01:29Historically, I mean, everybody looks at this corner of the world where people have
01:35marched into it, marched through it.
01:37Alexander the Great was one of the first and put his roots there and also left a lot of
01:40blood of his soldiers there.
01:41That was where he first began to suffer defeat.
01:43That whole disconnect between us and the enemy, the enemy is a very mysterious concept in
01:49Afghanistan.
01:50The light came on for the Taliban and said, hey, we better step back a rung on the ladder
01:55of escalation.
01:56We better go to suicide bombers and IEDs and booby traps.
02:01The boys have found an IED and they are going to blow it.
02:07An IED is just a bunch of fertilizer and diesel fuel and you put a small detonator and that's
02:16it.
02:17Asymmetrical warfare at its best.
02:19Taking a casualty is a very challenging thing to go through for any military unit.
02:24When the explosion happened, I was watching.
02:26Everything just goes calm.
02:28He wanted to have a serious conversation with me and he said, we have to do this and we
02:33have to talk about this because we never know what could happen.
02:36I want you to be strong and accept it.
02:41It's a possibility that I might not come back.
02:43It's going to be sad and everything but I don't want you to think of me as being gone
02:47because I'm always going to be there for you.
02:49I don't want you to think of me as being gone because I'm always going to be there for you.