ORDINARY PEOPLE

A barracks in the no man's land of a war zone. Among the young soldiers is the twenty-year-old “rookie” Johnny. When the unit is driven to a strip of abandoned farmland, the tedious waiting begins. Johnny attempts to establish the purpose of the impending mission and in doing so encounters nothing but silence from his comrades. Eventually several lorries arrive containing men who are identified as “enemies”. The seven soldiers are ordered to liquidate the enemies without, in the subsequent words of the commanding officer, “such an order ever having been issued”.

The director poses the question of personal responsibility within the framework of a rigorously planned and executed production concept. The cold images captured under scorching sunshine record the evolution of a war crime, whose inner development is characterised by peer pressure, fear of superiors, soldierly discipline, moral indifference and subsequent memory repression. Come the end of the working day the young men chat during the bus ride home: “How many shots did you fire? – I'm not sure. As many as the others”.

ORDINARY PEOPLE addresses a topic that many are reluctant to talk about: responsibility for war crimes committed in the name of one's own nation.