** Photo's of "09:11 ZULU" available via ANP-Photo**
***watch "09:11 ZULU" in high-quality streaming video, english version**
***Watch the Forward Air Control scene on YouTube**
***listen to the podcast of my lecture at the Academy for Journalism, in Dutch unfortunately***
***Watch the "09:11 Zulu" battle scene on YouTube***
NOW FOR SALE: THE DVD!!! Two language versions, 1:20 hr bonus materials on one disc...
read more & where to buy...
November 20th 2006 "09:11 Zulu" was broadcast on Dutch national television. The press was all over the film & questions were asked in Parliament to the Secretaries of Defence and Foreign Affairs. This turbulence was stronger then a month earlier, when I was also all over the newspapers & TV on the incident where I had to pick up a weapon and fight for my life in Uruzgan during an ambush by 100 taliban fighters. (but only after I ran out of batteries for my camera)
Op 20 november j.l. werd "09:11 ZULU - Onze commando's in Uruzgan" uitgezonden door de NCRV. De commotie in de pers die een maand daarvoor ontstond n.a.v. het verhaal rond 'de schietende filmmaker' werd ruimschoots overtroffen door de film zelf. Sterker nog, op de avond van de uitzending werden er door kamerlid Bert Koenders (PvdA) KAMERVRAGEN gesteld aan de ministers Bot (BuZa) en Kamp (MinDef).
Read more in these links to Press & Media
"09:11 ZULU - SPECIAL FORCES AT THE JOB IN AFGHANISTAN"
"09:11 ZULU - ONZE COMMANDO'S AAN HET WERK IN URUZGAN"
WHAT IS IT THAT DRIVES MENTALLY STABLE, more than average intelligent, super fit and adequate men to eagerly delve into the Heart of Darkness, to chopper into the Valley of the Shadow of Death, accompanied only by existential fear and complete trust in ‘the guy next to ya’. That’s the bold question to which filmmaker Vik Franke likes to have an answer. After two years of research and confidence building he joined the Dutch and US Special Forces for more than two months in the heart of enemy Taliban lines. A first for an embedded filmmaker.
EMBEDDED IN A SPECIAL FORCES TEAM on ‘initial entry’ operations in Old Testament settings, a most ideal situation for a film maker presented itself. Uruzgan is the desolate, barren central province in Afghanistan, birth ground of mullah Omar. The Taliban have maximum latitude, drugs traffic is the feeble main economic force and political power is executed along medieval lines.
This is the theater in which the 21st century hi-tech special forces operators move around in Chinook helicopters, covered by Apache helicopters, upping against invincible and experienced warriors who have already ousted the Mongols, the English and the Russians.
In the words of Rudyard Kipling:
When you’re wounded and left; On Afghanistan’s plains; And the women come out; To cut up your remains; Just roll on your rifle; And blow out your brains; And go to your God; Like a soldier. The parameters are non plus ultra for a story on human conflict & controversy.
