Synopsis
In 2006, Matthew VanDyke, a timid 27-year-old with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, left home in Baltimore and set off on a self-described “crash course in manhood." Inspired by the Australian fillmmaker Alby Mangels, he bought a motorcycle and a video camera, determined to film whatever happened as he began a four-year, 35,000 mile journey through North Africa and the Middle East.
During his travels, he struck up an unlikely friendship with a Libyan hippie named Nuri. When revolution broke out in Libya, VanDyke joined his friend in the fight against dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Wounded and captured while on a mission, VanDyke was held as a prisoner of war for nearly six months in two of Libya's most notorious prisons, before escaping from prison and returning to combat on the front lines. He not only had a gun, but also a camera, which he used to capture the intensity of his experiences in the war and those of the men he served with. This harrowing and sometimes humorous story of a young man’s struggle for political revolution and personal transformation is told using award-winning filmmaker Matthew VanDyke's extraordinary footage and interviews by two-time Academy Award nominated filmmaker Marshall Curry.
