Battle for Haditha

A reconstruction of the explosion of a roadside bomb in the Iraqi village of Haditha on 19 November 2005, and the bloodbath that American soldiers caused in retaliation. has the form of a mosaic that follows all those involved starting a day-and-a-half before the explosion. Director Nick Broomfield approaches the horrors from three points of view: that of the American soldiers, the perpetrators of the bombing, and an Iraqi family that lived nearby the location of the attack and ended up the victims of the soldiers' wrath. Broomfield filmed in Jordan and used former soldiers as actors. In total, the American soldiers killed 24 men, women and children that day, but Broomfield is not concerned with pointing fingers at anyone. He shows how each party is a prisoner in his or her own situation. The soldiers don't even know why they're in Iraq anymore. The Iraqi family sees the bombers planting the bomb but knows that warning the Americans would only result in death at the hands of Al-Qaida. And the bombers have been hired for money: they receive a thousand dollars for the attack. They aren't the religious fanatics who were presumed to have carried out the bombing. Broomfield shows us that in this war, there are no easy explanations.