Battle For Haditha

Battle For Haditha

This week, The Fabulous Picture Show  welcomes British filmmaker Nick Broomfield, one of the most celebrated documentary makers of his generation, as he shows our specially invited audience his latest feature, the Iraq war drama Battle For Haditha.

Based on the actual events of November 19, 2005, Battle For Haditha recreates the massacre of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians by a platoon of US marines. The soldiers attacked the Iraqis, including women and children, in retaliation for a roadside bombing that killed one of their colleagues.

Initially covered up by the US military, an investigation by Time Magazine sparked international outrage and led to a federal investigation, which has resulted in several marines facing trial this year.

Broomfield’s Battle For Haditha is remarkable for its even-handedness, telling the story with compassion from three points of view: that of the marines, the civilians, and the insurgents who planted the bomb. Shot documentary style in Jordan last year, Broomfield used mainly amateurs, including former US marines and Iraqis, for his third and most triumphant foray into narrative filmmaking.

Nick Broomfield joins Amanda Palmer for an insightful Q&A where he talks about his thoroughly original approach to fact-based drama, his feelings about the attempted cover-up, and the blurring between reality and fiction that occurs when actors have first-hand experience of situations they are re-creating.

Christian Mungui

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s Golden Palm, selected as the best film of 2007 by the London, Chicago and Los Angeles film critics circles, Romanian director Christian Mungui’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is without doubt one of the most harrowing and riveting dramas of our time.

The story of a young woman seeking an illegal abortion with the help of a heroic friend in the dying days of Ceausescu’s totalitarian regime, the film grips the viewer from the very beginning.

We talk to Christian Mungui, one of the leading lights of the current Romanian New Wave, about his directorial approach to this incredibly well-crafted drama.

Fatih Akin

The Edge Of Heaven

The Turkish community in Germany has been one of its most prominent immigrant groups for decades, but only now does it have a voice at the highest level of international cinema: Fatih Akin. 

Akin’s much-admired cross-cultural drama, The Edge Of Heaven, depicts the journey of a young German man of Turkish heritage as he travels back to Istanbul, searching for a young Turkish woman who has fled to Germany. 

We speak to Akin about the film, his dual cultural identities, and his next project, a bio-pic of the legendary Turkish director Yilmaz Guney, who spent much of his life in prison for his political beliefs.

Watch part one of this episode of The Fabulous Picture Show on Youtube

Watch part two of this episode of The Fabulous Picture Show on Youtube

This episode of The Fabulous Picture Show aired from Saturday, January 26, 2008