The Story of Abir: A Raping Not To Be Seen by Americans!!!

Translated by: Adib S. Kawar

Perhaps, De Palma’s choice of Abir’s story is related to a human and moral stance, “without saving the spectators and savagery (committed by the occupation) to convey his message, which is a conviction of fury” for the war…and some of its moral crimes committed under the shade of a greater crime that is occupation itself.

Assafir Sept. 1st. 2007

In March 2006, American soldiers raped the 14 years old Iraqi girl, Abir Qasem Al-Janabi, burned her house and killed three of her family members, among who was her younger sister.

Less then one your later American producer, Bryan De Palma, realized this disastrous crime into a movie film that he named “Rectified” (I am not sure of the title that I translated from Arabic «منقح». The film stirred on the third day of the 64th Venice International Film Festival, a big turmoil because of it “shocking scenes, which drove spectators to cry”.

Palma concentrates in his narrative film, which is competing against other films to gain the “Golden Lion” prize by the end of the current festival’s round (September 8th), on the “horrible damages” American occupation of Iraq is causing. It is said that Palma’s film is the “strongest and most creative among the competing films up till now” in the official competition, namely since last Wednesday evening.

It is not surprising for a capable cinematographic, like Palma (that achieved less then two years ago his film “The black Magnolia” to produce agony in his spectators hearts, by choosing a dramatic subject drawn from a human tragedy as a result of the American occupier’s swaggering in an Arab Islamic country as Iraq.

Perhaps, De Palma’s choice of Abir’s story is related to a human and moral stance, “without saving the spectators any savagery (committed by the occupation) to convey his message, which is a conviction of fury” for the war, and some of its moral crimes committed under the shade of a greater crime that is occupation itself.

Palma did not hesitate in reminding his spectators of the Vietnam war, for which he waged political and cultural battles for the purpose of withdrawing American soldiers from it thirty years ago, he said in a press conference, “we saw during the Vietnam war pictures of people that we used to torture and kill, we saw soldiers returned to home in plastic bags. But today we are not seeing anything about the Iraqi war”.

He added that the pictures of this war and its horrors are available only on the internet and private records, and “not circulated by the bigger media”, expressing his interest in exposing them for the public, with the hope that Americans will make a move to, “to urge their politicians to withdraw American soldiers from Iraq”.

De Palma justified the presence of the “horror pictures” in the film, by saying they are what shall stop the war” .He explained that the title of the film shows how “American media fails to expose the truth”, by means of dropping out the war’s “real” pictures, he added that he was asking the media to publish what they “could not”.

De Palma ended saying, I believe that what is taking place “in Iraq” is horrible… because up till now we cannot tell the people the absolute truth about what this people (Iraqis) succumbed under torture”, because the film as its title means “rectified”, was also “rectified”, after he was asked by his lawyer “to change the real pictures to not real scenes to avoid being persecuted”. To realize his film De Palma relied on information published on electronic sites, making of them” memoirs recorded on video cassettes”, reflecting daily diaries of American soldiers in Iraq, he also reviewed documents, and actual real indications.

The film also goes deep in a “dumfounding way”, in the heart of the Iraqi struggle, uncovering one of the Iraqi tragedies represented in making of them easy targets for American gun fire, simply because they don’t master the English language, in which they are warned against approaching American road blocks that are spread around in their streets.

As for the crime itself, the five soldiers who took part in it, four were sentenced between five and 110 ten years of imprisonment.