Retrograde is booked with masterfully composed footage captured from both sides of the barrier at Kabul Airport. In the opening, Heinemann and his high-resolution camera terrified desperate Afghans to leave the country as the Taliban approached. American soldiers fired indiscriminately in the air in a desperate attempt to disperse the crowd.
After the panic subsides, Heinemann focuses on the defeated faces of those contemplating torture and execution by the new regime. These are images we are more used to seeing in art galleries than bold documentaries.
The film then jumps eight months in time to January 2021 to show the growing threat of US withdrawal from the perspective of recent US Special Forces supporting Lieutenant-General Sami Sadat’s Afghan army.
Heinemann’s astonishing access allows entry into high-level meetings and even eavesdrops on Sadat’s officers as they question his optimistic briefings.
His previous movie was Private War, a biographical film by war correspondent Marie Colvin starring Rosamund Pike, and this drama appears to have inspired him.
Heinemann has the ear of a great reporter and the eye of a really great photojournalist.
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