Ken Loach, attending the Cannes Film Festival with his Iraq drama, Route Irish, said American made films about Iraq ignore the glaring fact that the true victims are the Iraqi people. "It disturbs me even more when films like that are then dedicated to the American military because sure, they suffered, but just think of the millions of Iraqis that are dead, families destroyed, children mutilated, homes smashed, four million people in exile - in that context I find it very disturbing that films about this war are dedicated to the American military." Route Irish is named after the road from Baghdad airport to the Green Zone which is often referred to as the most dangerous route in the world.
The film shines a light on the shadowy world of private security contractors in Iraq - former soldiers who are paid up to £10,000 per month, tax-free, to protect foreign workers. Loach, who won the Palme d'Or in 2006 for The Wind That Shakes The Barley.
Speaking at a press conference in Cannes, he said: "The Iraq war and what happened there is something that I have wanted to deal with for a long time. The question was not should we make one, but how, because it was a monstrous crime against the Iraqi people." The film features a waterboarding scene, which the actor involved, Trevor Williams, had to endure for real. "We were going to shoot the sequence with a mask over Trevor's face but it didn't look right. He was waterboarded, poor man, and he bore it stoically," Loach explained.
"Doing the scene was very interesting because it was the centre of the film. Waterboarding was sanctioned by the US and of course condoned by the British government, whatever they say, because it is absurd to pretend they didn't know. "It breaks the Geneva Convention, it breaks our understanding of human rights, it breaks our commitment not to torture. And the people who sanctioned that torture are still the great and the good lording it around the world.
"It is done in our name and the people who make it acceptable are still there - the Blairs and the Bushes and the rest. And Blair was made ambassador for peace in the Middle East, this man who accepted torture. If we can't put them in the law courts we need to put them in the dock of public opinion, because they need to be held to account."
When will the true numbers be shown?
ReplyDeleteAll because of lies, and more lies. From both sides of the Atlantic.
He said so and so, so it must be true.
The run up to the attack on Iraq was classic cold war dis-information. It was cooked and recooked.
How in the world do these Masters of War sleep at night?
Look at the children.
We used depleted uranium, and God knows what else on these people.
Bush went to look for imaginary WMD's.
Instead of finding them, which he knew were never there.
We used our own WMD's
A drone should be classified as a WMD.
The more I think about Bigelow's remarks at the BAFTAS (I was watching it live and nearly put my foot through the TV) the angrier I get. She repeated a toned down speech at the Oscars but the same tin hat establishment-friendly claptrap essentially. Loach is right on. He knows military thuggery when he sees it and (unlike Bigelow) he tells it.
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