In California's Mojave Desert, the US Army has built a “virtual Iraq” – a billion dollar urban warfare simulation – and populated it with hundreds of Iraqi role-players. Army unites spend three weeks inside the simulation before deploying to the Middle East.

Full Battle Rattle follows an Army Battalion through the simulation, as they attempt to quell an insurgency and prevent the mock village of Median Wasi from slipping into civil war. American soldiers are cast as “insurgents”, while Iraqi exiles play civilians.

Co-Director Jesse Moss comments in a BBC interview: "It feels extraordinarily real. The army has employed about 1600 role players. The set, if you will, is about 100 square miles. It's incredibly sophisticated but it also looks like a Hollywood back lot. It's this combination of realism and utter surrealism that drew us to the simulation. The army employs Iraqi exiles to role play Iraqi civilians on the battlefield. These Iraqis are paid a day rate, they come and live in the simulation in the village, in an Iraqi village, and they play Iraqis."

Despite the movie-set contrivances, the stakes and the emotions are very real. Tension between soldiers and Iraqi role players, many recent immigrants, hangs thick in the air. As reality and fantiasy overlap, the flim moves from comic to surreal to poignant.

Can this phony, Baudrillardian war shed light on the real war the troops will be facing, or is the exercise itself symptomatic of a deluded Western response to Iraq and Afghanistan?

Related Links:

Official Site

Watch the trailer

Background on the Army's Iraq Simulation: The National Training Center at Fort Irwin
Official Home Page Of The National Training Center
Article about Fort Irwin, home to NTC
Article about NTC

New York Times Article about the US Army's Iraq Simulation