SADDAM'S MASS GRAVES

Inspired by the examples of Cambodia and South Africa, where the uncovering of truths about previous atrocities led to a process of reconciliation, the Iraqi Kurdish filmmaker Jano Rosebiani returned home just before the outbreak of war in 2003. A few years earlier he had made the only fiction film about Saddam Hussein's 1985 chemical attacks on Kurds in Halabja. The goal of his present film was to document the discovery of mass grave sites, over 200 of which have been uncovered in the past year, a number now cited as the largest in the world. Apart from his use of chemical and biological weapons, Saddam commonly engaged in the mass burial of civilians, many of whom were interred while they were still alive. With the goal of setting the record straight about the collective suffering of Iraqis, Rosebiani interviews coalition officials, human rights representatives, and survivors. He notes, "I believe the scar that has been inflicted on the people of Iraq is the common denominator that should bond all Iraqis to work together to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again."