Hyena Road is a war film that represents a scarce supply of genuine portrayals of combat and diplomacy in Afghanistan. It does not oversimplify the struggle to bring peace to the Afghans with pretentious Western-centric patriotism, it respects the region's complicated history and difficult cultural issues. Modern war in this film is not shown to be a series of Michael Bay explosive pyrotechnical sequences, but rather a delicate matter of strategy and sensitive attempts to form some manner of understanding among a people radically foreign to the Western World. The romantic subplot does seem however melodramatic and improbable. What is really the downside of this film is the extremely irritating soundtrack that spikes during the moments of action. It feels like the film is screaming at you. For a war film, this is completely unnecessary. Combat is already loud and uncivil, there is no need to smother it with a generic Middle Eastern vocal track. Nonetheless, the film achieves what many war films do not: that to fight any conflict in Afghanistan cannot rely on emotional manifestations of brute force, but rather intelligent understanding of their cultural values and tribalistic disputes. No matter the case, no foreign power should enter that region with the expectation that they will overcome what thousands of years of history have proven insurmountable. The film's perspective of Canadian troops and its own military struggle is handled unapologetically, without condemnation or excessive glorification. Their armed forces are shown to be imperfect human beings in a distant world that for all extensive purposes, takes place on an alien planet. You may be better equipped, trained, and educated, but the rugged social and geographic terrain of Afghanistan makes that essentially worthless without intimate knowledge and understanding of the country's history.