'Restrepo', an award-winning documentary film about the United States Army's 2nd Platoon, Battle Company in the 173rd Airborne Brigade's deployment to the Korengal Valley — widely considered the most dangerous locale in Afghanistan — kicks off the Bermuda Documentary Film Festival on Friday.

The film won the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

Directors Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger were embedded with the platoon for large parts of the soldiers' stay in Afghanistan. Mr. Junger, author of 'War' and 'The Perfect Storm', has been reporting from Afghanistan since 1996.

Mr. Hetherington has reported on conflict for more than ten years, and was awarded the 2008 World Press Photo Prize for his work there. He is a contributing photographer to Vanity Fair.

The film came about when Mr. Junger and Mr. Hetherington went on assignment for Vanity Fair and ABC News.

After an embed with Battle Company in 2005, Mr. Junger had the idea of following one platoon for an entire deployment and writing a book and making a documentary about the experience. "When I stepped off the helicopter in June 2007, I was stunned by the ruggedness of the terrain and the beauty," said Mr. Junger. "Then again, I didn't have to spend a year there, and I assumed the fighting would be minimal, which of course it wasn't."

Each director had a camera and filmed more or less of their own volition. "If I was busy taking stills, Sebastian would make sure to cover the camera work," said Mr. Hetherington. "There were scenes where we were both shooting, and we would divide things up in a crude manner. I'd take the wides, he'd take the tights, or I'd shoot the Afghans while he shot the Americans."

There were no limits placed on the filmmakers because there was a stated agreement that they would not shoot wounded American soldiers, or would get their OK later. "I think there was an understanding that we would be very sensitive about filming the dead," said Mr. Junger. "The army asks to review a rough cut later for security and privacy concerns, but they had no issues."

They did not stay the entire length of the deployment, but instead visited it five times, each time staying about a month.

"No one had followed a platoon for an entire duration of their deployment, so we became incredibly close to many of the soldiers," said Mr. Hetherington. "They came from a variety of backgrounds and had joined the army for a myriad of competing reasons.

"Some said they needed to get out of their parents' home and saw the army as offering them independence, others that they were seeking a rite of passage and new experiences.

"Many didn't think they had many options open to them and saw the army as the best opportunity on offer. They came from all over the United States, many from Texas and California, others from faraway places like Guam."

The making of the film was not without its risk for the directors. Mr. Hetherington broke his leg in combat, and Mr. Junger ripped his Achilles tendon.

"Then I got blown up, but none of those things kept us from going back out there," said Mr. Junger.

Mr. Junger described being in a combat zone as both "exhilarating and terrifying, combined with long stretches of boredom".

"Things appear very simple in a war zone as the clutter of daily living recedes with the larger equation of being killed or staying alive," said Mr. Junger. "Mix this with being drip fed adrenalin, and inevitably it's going to make 'coming back' incredibly difficult. I think this is something that the soldiers experienced, and to a lesser extent we also."

'Restrepo' screens Friday at 8.30 p.m. at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute.

Tickets, $15, are available at www.bdatix.bm. A trailer of 'Restrepo' can be seen on www.bermudadocs.com.