Redacted

Leave it to the rabble-rousing instincts of Brian De Palma to drop a homemade bomb into the middle of the Iraq debate. Redacted has the feel and tone of a piece of guerrilla filmmaking. Taking a small crew to the Middle East, shooting on digital video, De Palma intends to provoke – he is angry and it shows.

Focusing on a squad of American soldiers in Samarra, the film employs a number of conflicting styles and alternative points of view, juxtaposing the experiences of the soldiers running a checkpoint with those of the media sent to cover events, and the local Iraqis who find themselves caught in the middle of a civil war.

De Palma has set himself an ambitious goal. He wants us to radically reconsider the imagery through which we encounter events in our world, and how the presentation and composition of these various visual registers influences our ideas and beliefs. This is a brave film, as full of contradiction and conflict as the war itself. Never one to shy away from controversy, De Palma has crafted yet another film that is certain to stir considerable debate.

Piers Handling, Toronto International Film Festival Programme