The Blood of My Brother: A Story of Death in Iraq

When the War in Iraq broke out, popular Iraqi portrait photographer Ra'ad Fadel Salman Ceshur al–Azawi had just saved up enough money to buy his own photography shop. On the evening after the opening, he was on volunteer guard duty at the Kadhimiya Mosque. While sitting down with friends, he was shot dead by an American patrol. Full of anger and indignation, his brother longs to avenge his death, but he cannot leave his family and abandon his role as breadwinner, besides, he's supposed to take over the shop. Filmmaker Andrew Berends chose the story of a respectable man, viewed by Iraqi society as a hero, to portray the war from the perspective of ordinary Iraqis. Although he includes interviews with American soldiers, Berends focuses on Ra'ad's family. The viewer steps into the shoes of the victims of armed conflict and becomes aware that war casualties are not just anonymous media statistics but real people within a patchwork of other lives and stories, thus gaining a better understanding of the pain and feeling of loss that death brings to their families. The documentary combines interviews with members of Ra'ad's family and his friends with silent and meditative sequences infused with tragedy, pain and prayers for a better future and contrasts atmospheric and poetically moving images with raw and harrowing footage of fighting in the streets.