Battle for Haditha

An investigation of the massacre of 24 men, women and children in Haditha, Iraq allegedly shot by four U.S. Marines in retaliation for the death of a U.S. Marine killed by a roadside bomb. The movie follows the story of the Marines of Kilo Company, an Iraqi family, and the insurgents who plant the roadside bomb., Riveting, fact-based examination of a 2005 massacre in Iraq, where 24 civilians, including men, women and children, were allegedly gunned down by four U.S. Marines in retaliation for a comrade killed by a roadside bomb. Elliot Ruiz, Matthew R. Knoll, Thomas Hennessy, Vernon Gaines, Falah Flayeh, Oliver Bytrus, Yasmine Hanani. Directed by Nick Broomfield, who co-wrote the script with Marc Hoeferlin and Anna Telford. Many of the U.S. soldiers were played by actual Iraq War vets., Fact-based examination of a 2005 massacre in Iraq, where 24 civilians were allegedly gunned down by four US Marines in retaliation for a comrade killed by a roadside bomb., The fate of two cultures becomes locked on a tragic collision course in director Nick Broomfield’s dramatization of the events that led to the massacre of 24 Iraqi men, women, and children by American Marines. A squadron of American soldiers goes speeding across the Iraqi desert in a convoy of armored Humvees, eventually stopping at a local store where the soldiers jump out to stretch and browse the DVD selection. Meanwhile, as the Marines strike up a conversation with the young male clerk behind the counter, two Iraqi men climb into the back of a pick-up truck to get a crash course in IED mechanics. Both the Marines and the Iraqis are simply going about their daily business as usual, just doing their best to survive in a land where war is just another fact of life. For the Marines it’s all about patrolling the desert and waiting for the next bomb to go off. When a roadside IED kills one Marine and wounds two others, the vengeance with which the American soldiers strike back at the locals may cause even the most hard-line warhawks to take pause and consider the true cost of a war which has no end in sight., Battle for Haditha, the latest feature film from acclaimed filmmaker Nick Broomfield (Ghosts), for Channel 4, is based on a real-life story of violence and retribution in Iraq. The film is the centrepiece of Channel 4’s Happy Birthday Iraq season. On 19 November 2005, Iraqi insurgents bombed a US Marines convoy, resulting in the death of their most popular officer. Enraged by their loss, his young squadron went in search of the insurgents, violently storming a series of houses in the village of Haditha. In total, 24 people were killed, many of them women and children. This is a war film about ordinary people in an impossible situation. Stories from all sides are brought to the forefront: the young, inexperienced US Marines, many of whom had never travelled outside America, the Iraqi insurgents, and the residents of Haditha, innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire: all embroiled in a war not of their own making. Battle for Haditha is followed on More4 by On That Day, an investigative documentary into the Haditha massacre.