Gift of My Father

Hamoudi, an Iraqi orphan, remembers how he lost his parents. It is a totally normal car journey. His father and mother are sitting in front and he is on the back seat next to a pot plant, a present from his father. Who are those soldiers out there, Hamoudi wants to know. They are better than the others, his father answers. And then it happens. Shots ring out, machine gun fire, the air is rent by the sound of screeching tyres and screaming sirens; the windscreen shatters. His parents speak no more. This film is based on real events that occurred in 2007 when employees of the private US security company Blackwater killed 17 civilians in Baghdad. The incident caused a wave of outrage and indignation. America's judiciary dragged its heels over the investigation. Only seven years later – following hefty protest from the Arab world – were several convictions made. (Berlinale)