The front lines, impoverished neighborhoods, and camps of the so-called Islamic State in Nagorno-Karabakh, Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia draw millions of dark tourism enthusiasts annually. Vita Maria Drygas’s film delves into the motivations of these individuals, who, embracing the "you only live once" maxim, seek to experience thrills reminiscent of Bruce Willis or Indiana Jones movies. The film, however, reveals that this phenomenon extends beyond mere adrenaline addiction or a fascination with death. It probes the boundaries between constructed fiction and real danger, the inception and conclusion of this tourist, neo-colonial spectacle, and the role of us, the viewers, in this context. 

Tadeusz Strączek