Fwd: [bangla-vision] Final act for ‘Afghan’ actors at CFB Wainwright

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From: Habib Yousafzai <habibyousafzai@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 11:59 AM
Subject: [bangla-vision] Final act for 'Afghan' actors at CFB Wainwright

 

Final act for 'Afghan' actors at CFB Wainwright

Petti Fong

In this 2007 file photo at CFB Wainwright in Wainwright, Alta., commanders from the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) meet in a 'village' with Afghan community leaders to rehearse for encounters that might take place in Afghanistan.

Aaron Lynett/Toronto Star

VANCOUVER—When the soldiers and the actors take their places this fall at the fake Afghan villages in Wainwright, Alta., it will mark the end of an era.

For five years, hundreds of actors and thousands of military personnel have gone through the Wainwright Training Area on sets constructed to resemble villages and life in Afghanistan.

"It's extremely important to be exposed to the environment before you go into the actual situation," said Maj. John Page at CFB Wainwright, about 200 km east of Edmonton. "It's a good chance to practise as a team. They're putting it all together in one place at one time."

With the Conservative government sticking to its plans to withdraw active Canadian military engagement by 2011, the training session that begins in September to November at Wainwright will be the last exercise conducted.

About 2,000 military and 500 support workers will participate in the training and interact with the 300 actors who have been hired to play Afghan villagers or translators and the wounded.

Next week, casting director Rhonda Fisekci will hold open casting calls in the Vancouver-area suburb of Burnaby in hopes of hiring people between the ages of 18 to 60.

It's the first time since 2006, when actors were first cast as Afghan residents to add authenticity to the exchanges with the military forces in training, that she has opened up the casting outside of Alberta.

With so many new actors needed for the roles because of the last major push for training, Fisekci said she had to look elsewhere to fill the positions.

For the role of Afghan locals, Fisekci is looking for men and women of Afghan or Muslim descent who can speak Farsi, Dari and Pashto.

"Everyone gets into it and they understand the importance of what they're doing. It's all about cultural sensitivity and teaching Canadian soldiers when they roll into a town that there is a cultural protocol in place," said Fisekci.

The actors take on such roles as police chiefs, the first point of contact at villages, and others become mullahs in the villages who appear after certain negotiations have been made.

For speaking roles, actors will be paid $290 a day while those in the background get paid $195 a day.

Also needed are amputees of any ethnicity to play the role of the injured in the training exercise. Fisekci said make-up will be used to make the actor look like an injured Afghan civilian.

The casting call is open to men and women who can travel and live in Alberta at the military base during the fall.

Everyone who gets accepted will have to go through a military and criminal check because they will be living in barracks at CFB Wainwright.

There are six large and 10 small village sites in the Wainwright training area, with the sets composed of a mix of huge, modified shipping containers and concrete and wood structures.

In the 1990s, said Maj. Greg Poehlmann, public affairs officer with National Defence based in Kingston, Ont., the military recognized it needed to better reproduce the environment where the soldiers were deployed.

The training exercise and sets are designed to realistically portray everything about life on the base and in villages. Soldiers are equipped with devices that will provide feedback to medical staff, who are also in training to handle injuries found in a real situation.

"It's a snapshot of everything, from military to transport, signals, communications. They are in vehicles that if all the lights start flashing, they know that vehicle's been taken out by fire. Streets are narrow so they have to get out and walk through the village," Poehlmann said Wednesday.

In the past, the villages have been outfitted to resemble those in Bosnia and Serbia. The Afghan villages will remain for now.

"The Canadian government has said we cease operations in June and the ones going through the training will be the last to go and probably stay until it's over," said Poehlmann. "This is their final big exercise."

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Palash Biswas
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