Writer-director Peter Watkins's little-seen fictional short, the 8mm Diary of an Unknown Soldier, follows a World War I trench soldier who is ordered to the front for the first time. In the opening line of his narration, the doughboy informs the audience that this will be "the last day of [his] life." Watkins then uses a combination of expressionist and documentary techniques to relay the experience of battle from the soldier's perspective.