In California's Mojave Desert, the US Army has built a "virtual Iraq" - a billion dollar urban warfare simulation - and populated it with hundreds of Iraqi role-players. FULL BATTLE RATTLE, a feature documentary, follows an Army Battalion through the simulation, as they attempt to quell an insurgency and prevent Medina Wasl, a mock Iraqi village, from slipping into civil war. Comic, surreal and poignant, the provides a revelatory look at the soul of the American war machine and, in the battle for Medina Wasl, finds a potent allegory of the Iraq War and the cultural and religious differences that confound America's efforts.
http://2008.sxsw.com/film/screenings/film/F11856.html
