Director Clément Cogitore’s strange and engrossing spin on the war movie genre focuses on a group of French soldiers in a remote outpost in Afghanistan. Despite the dangers, they’ve settled into routine, until one by one, the soldiers inexplicably start to disappear.

Making elegant use of the austere landscape and the rugged features of star Jérémie Renier, the film shows how these doggedly practical and nonspiritual men cope with the eerie events, the cause of which is hinted at but never fully explained. But the most prominent theme is the soldiers’ inability to understand the place they’ve invaded: Not only the natives, but the land itself may be finding a way to reject them.