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DUDE DOWN is an artist’s film that brings a new perspective to Improvised Explosive Devices or IEDs. The action is seen from an IED’s point of view. The IED, buried in a slightly out of the way place, develops a conscience about what he is and what he is for as he waits to go off. Ultimately, he concludes he doesn’t want to go off – much to the annoyance of his maker who occasionally rings him up to ask how it’s all going. To his maker, the IED is a big disappointment.
Intermingled within this format, the film seriously explores IEDs, mines, and the irony of two teams of scientists in the world working against each other. One group of engineers, scientists, doctors attempts to help amputees and improve protection against IEDs whilst another combination constantly improves IEDs’ lethality. Many are now brightly coloured plastic, made in their thousands in China and Russia, expressly designed not to kill but to maim. This takes more time up and stretches enemy resources. Cambodia and Vietnam are still struggling against the legacy of randomly sown mines scattered during the Vietnam war.
DUDE DOWN has a poetic register, and references work done at Imperial College London, where Professor Anthony Bull, leads a department dedicated to helping amputees and victims of mines and IEDs and improving military equipment against these repulsive weapons.
(Completed October 2016, Screened at BFI London Film Festival Oct 2016, Alchemy Film Festival, Scotland May 2017)
