A writer director's first film is a make or break career moment.

As an artist directing a feature film, typically this is the first time you've had

millions of dollars of budget and dozens of people to devote to making your artistic dreams come true.

And those are high stakes for a first artistic work.

Like Adam and me, this is a moment that many aspiring filmmakers worked toward for years and never get there.

What are the ingredients of a successful first film?

You need a story, you know how to tell in a distinctive way, you need to make the case for yourself as a director going forward. But at the same time

not to get too artistically ambitious and make a film that suffocates in your directing style and becomes a creative cul-de-sac.

Today's film, penned and directed by Samuel Mause, is a feature film by a director with experience in his subject matter.

He was a gunner in a tank crew

during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. He has a confirmed kill and he is

haunted by what he did in the war.

And in discussing the film we're reviewing today,

he says it took him 25 years to write the script

because returning to his memories of the war

made him nauseous.

Who knows if that's true or hyperbole, but that nausea is in the film.

It might be the main character in the film. This is the story of a Tank crew's first sortie

into an active combat situation.

Taking place over a little more than 24 hours, and over the course of its run, the characters

in the tank get dirtier and grosser and more sullied by the moment.

Much of the most violent imagery gets trotted out early in this film,

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