Article: Warring fictions ; Director Brian De Palma's controversial account of the Iraq war mixes real and staged footage to powerful effect

Redacted Cert 15, 90 mins

AT ONE point in Brian De Palma's polarising semifiction about the horrors of the Iraq war, an old car trundles along a dusty road towards an American checkpoint.

There's a sign that says "Stop" in Arabic and, when the vehicle doesn't, a soldier puts his hands up to make the situation crystal clear. But the car goes on, presumed to be carrying a bomb, and is fired upon.

The result is the deaths of a family of Iraqis taking a pregnant woman to hospital.

Apparently nobody in the car could read the sign and the soldier's warning was misinterpreted. No wonder Private Salazar (Izzy Diaz), in the video journal that he hopes will get him into film school, says: "Welcome to ...

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