Battle for Haditha

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.

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, 24 unarmed Iraqi men, women and children were killed following an incident where an I.E.D killed one marine and seriously wounded two others and were killed by a group of United States Marines in Haditha, a city in the western Iraq province of Al Anbar. Since the release of the film, however, the US military justice controversially dropped all charges to all Marines involved. The names of the involved parties have been changed in the film.

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.