Battle for Haditha

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 dropped all charges to all Marines involved. The names of the marines have been changed in the film, while the Iraqi civilians retain their real names.

Production

Shot in Jerash, Jordan, the film uses former US Military personnel and Iraqi refugees to play many of the roles. 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.

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, and 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. Director Nick Broomfield won the Silver Shell award for Best Director at the San Sebastian Film Festival on 29 September 2007. It was also presented at the London Film Festival on 30 October 2007.

Critical reception

As of May 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 67% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 30 reviews. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 65 out of 100, based on 12 reviews.