Film / News
Patchway paratrooper’s story told on screen
Corporal Stuart Hale, who was raised in Patchway and lost a leg to a landmine in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, back in September 2006, will attend the local premiere of Kajaki at the Vue Cinema Longwell Green on November 25. He’ll be joined by Benjamin O’Mahony, the actor who plays him in the film, plus director Paul Katis, producer Gareth Ellis-Unwin, and screenwriter Tom Williams.
The true-life war thriller, which received its world premiere in London on November 12, has been described as both the British Band of Brothers and the British The Hurt Locker. It centres on an incident involving a group of soldiers, mostly from the British Army’s 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment [3 Para], who were marooned in a minefield while stationed at the Kajaki Dam in Afghanistan in 2006.
The soldiers’ ordeal begins with sniper Stuart Hale crossing the dry riverbed to investigate a suspected Taliban roadblock. His leg is then blown off by a landmine. His comrades set off to assist him, but soon find themselves trapped in an unmarked field of hundreds of mines, originally set by the Russians 30 years earlier. In the searing heat, the rescue party are unable to move for fear of setting off more explosions. For six tense hours they await rescue by helicopter.
One man, Corporal Mark Wright, lost his life that day. Three others lost legs and seven were seriously wounded. Although portrayed in the film as a straightforward tale of heroism, the incident was not without controversy. The coroner at the inquest into Cpl Wright’s death criticised the lack of equipment at the scene.
Kajaki was shot on location in Jordan, as was The Hurt Locker, and is released in cinemas to mark the withdrawal of British forces from Afghanistan. Proceeds from the London premiere and the Bristol screening will benefit four military charities: Help for Heroes, The Royal British Legion, Walking With the Wounded and The Hashemite Commission for Disabled Soldiers.
For more information, see the film’s official website
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