The problem with history is that it keeps repeating itself. The problem with military history is that it keeps repeating itself too. Unfortunately, military history has a nasty habit of destroying governments and peoples (but not the profits) all in pursuit of a “right cause.” But what is a “right cause”? And how can we know what “right cause” means when we know so little about what a “right conflict” is?

The Smell of Paradise is an engrossing and chilling hybrid of documentary and road movie that travels all the way from 1995 Chechnya to 2004 Naziristan. During stops in Chechnya, Dagestan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Qatar, and Afghanistan, directors Mariusz Pilis and Marcin Mamon interview many of the key participants in the armed conflicts in these regions and allow them the rare opportunity to speak in their own voices regarding the issues that have placed them in the position they happen to occupy. If you live in North America, chances are you’ll be surprised by many of their responses.

Individuals such as former Chechen president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev and self-proclaimed freedom fighters Shamil Basaev and Hamzat Gelayev are among the figures who get time in front of Pilis and Mamon’s camera. What quickly becomes evident over the course of these interviews is how convinced each of these individuals are in the justness of their cause, and how predominant the male dominated “creation through destruction” mindset is everywhere the filmmakers travel. (There’s not a single female to be found in the entire film.) Grimly, and seemingly inevitably, every interviewee will be murdered before the film is completed.

Few people in their right mind would make the dangerous journey that the filmmakers embark upon here, or be resourceful enough to break through the uneasy silence that greets them at each destination. With “embedded journalism” now the norm in all mainstream coverage of this region of the world, it’s illuminating to travel the road between Kabul and Kandahar in the back of a flatbed truck or observe the participants at a rebel camp in the Caucasus Mountains or stand in the midst of a crowded bazaar in Herat without the veil of security that broadcast media brings. The Smell of Paradise is a rare example of balanced and illuminating reporting about conflicts that rarely receive it.

Some final words about the silence. In these villages that have spent thousands of years living under various occupying forces, you can’t help but be struck by the overwhelming indifference and disdain to time and truth as the inhabitants stare directly into the camera. With everyone in the film constantly speaking of the truth, it becomes easy to understand why one becomes indifferent to it. Especially if it means death and destruction stretching on for lifetimes.

Watch The Smell of Paradise online at video.google.ca.