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In 2014, Vita Maria Drygas was filming in a war zone. She had travelled to the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine to pick up footage for a documentary when she spotted a handwritten advert offering “cheap” tours of the frontline. “It was a mindfuck,” says the 39-year-old Polish director over a video call from Warsaw, with quiet intensity.

She found the idea of people buying tickets to the frontline, like a theatre production, profoundly shocking: “It was impossible. I didn’t believe it.” At first, she assumed that the advert was a sick joke or maybe a Russian provocation. But back in Poland, digging around on the internet, she discovered the hidden world of war jollies: “A huge branch of tourism that is very underground.”

She spent the next seven years making a documentary, Danger Zone, following a handful of tourists on holiday in some of the most dangerous places on the planet. There is Eleonora, an Italian living in Las Vegas who travels to Afghanistan. On an army base, she swaps her Birkenstocks for combat boots to fire ammo, and poses for a selfie holding a rifle. We also meet Rick, an American tour operator who organises bespoke trips to conflict zones that can cost $20,000 (£16,000) a week.

What is it about holidaying in the hell of a conflict zone that gives some people a thrill? “Everyone has their own reasons,” she says. “Each of my subjects has a different motivation, because people are different. It’s difficult to find a single motivation. Everyone is shaped by their experiences. Their own experiences are pushing them to go there. There’s also adrenaline, which is addictive. It’s some kind of need. It’s not my way of seeing the world, but I didn’t come to judge them.”