Do Not Hesitate

A Dutch military convoy on a peacekeeping mission in the Middle East, becomes stranded when their vehicle breaks down in the desert. As they wait for a repair team, they mistake a goat for an adversary and shoot it dead in the bushes. The furious goat’s owner, a local 14-year- old boy, appears and refuses to leave. As tensions simmer and supplies dwindle, paranoia begins to disseminate amongst the men leading to some irreversible choices. Do Not Hesitate excels as both a taut thriller and a haunting psychological study.

‘I developed the story with my screenwriter, Jolein Laarman, and she wrote the script. We didn’t want to make a movie that was about a mission or saving somebody. We wanted to focus on the psychological experience of them being there. To do that, we need to get them stuck in one place. The tension is based not on action, but on what could happen. The danger is in your head instead of what you see…. As a filmmaker, I like films that have a certain pace and entertain and thrill you, so I was very keen to not make it just “heavy drama” but to give it some tension and suspense to enhance the viewing experience of the film. I wanted to make it exciting.’

Director Shariff Korver, from an interview in filmint.