The Price of Duty

In the first three years of U.N. peacekeeping activity in former Yugoslavia, ten Canadian soldiers died. Numerous others were seriously injured. Many were "engineers," soldiers who are assigned the dangerous task of clearing land mines in order to create a safer environment for the local populations. A tribute to Corporal Mark Isfeld, or "Issy," as he was known to his fellow soldiers, The Price of Duty follows the soldiers of the 1 Combat Engineer Regiment in their daily work of destroying or disarming some of the hundreds of thousands of anti-tank mines, anti-personnel mines and booby-traps that have been planted in the Balkans since civil war broke out in 1991. As we see in dramatic close-ups, it's a painstaking job with great personal risk, requiring nerves of steel and unwavering trust among soldiers. It's a job that cost Canadian peacekeeper Mark Isfeld his life.