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Battle for Haditha

2007 British film From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Battle for Haditha
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Battle for Haditha is a 2007 drama film directed by British director Nick Broomfield based on the Haditha killings. Dramatising real events using a documentary style, Battle for Haditha is Broomfield's follow up to Ghosts. The film was aired on Channel 4 in the UK on 17 March 2008.

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Plot

The film is inspired by the Haditha killings incident that occurred three months after the Battle of Haditha in the Iraq War. On 19 November 2005 in Haditha, a city in the western Iraqi province of Al Anbar, 24 unarmed Iraqi men, women, and children were killed by a group of United States Marines following an incident where an I.E.D killed one Marine and seriously wounded two others. Since the release of the film, the US military controversially[2][3] dropped all charges to all Marines involved.[4] The names of the Marines have been changed in the film, while the Iraqi civilians retain their real names.[5]

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Production

Shot in Jerash, Jordan, the film uses former US Military personnel and Iraqi refugees to play many of the roles.[6] However, the film was shot in an unconventional way – it was shot sequentially enabling the cast to build their characters as the story progressed. It also used real locations, and a very small documentary style film crew. This greatly added to the feeling of reality. Actors, while working from a detailed script, and the final form of the film reflects that structure, were also able to improvise and add to the dialogue, making it their own.

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Cast

The film features:

  • Elliot Ruiz as Cpl Ramirez, a Marine who loses his composure after watching a friend die
  • Andrew McLaren as Captain Sampson, the tough company commander in Charge of Cpl Ramirez
  • Jase Willette as PFC Cuthbert, the young Marine whose death sets off the chain of events
  • Yasmine Hanani as Hiba, a young Iraqi woman stuck in the middle of the chaos
  • Eric Mehalacopoulos as the no-nonsense Sgt Ross
  • Nathan Delacruz a former United States Marine plays Cpl Marcus with his infamous comical one liners
  • Falah Flayla as a former Iraqi Army officer turned insurgent
  • Thomas Hennessy Jr. as a Navy corpsman assigned to Kilo company

Film festivals

Battle for Haditha was presented at the Toronto Film Festival on 11 September 2007.[7] Director Nick Broomfield won the Silver Shell award for Best Director at the San Sebastian Film Festival on 29 September 2007.[8] It was also presented at the London Film Festival on 30 October 2007.[9]

Critical reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 70% of 33 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.2/10.[10] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 65 out of 100, based on 12 reviews.[11]

See also

References

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