THE RORY PECK AWARDS 2007
Sponsored by Sony
Ashwin Raman - German
Baghdad CommandoFinalist: The Rory Peck Award for Features
A closely-observed look at the life of US troops stationed in Iraq: from their camp with its swimming pool, beauty treatments, and hot-dog eating contest to the brutal reality of patrolling the city. It includes shocking footage of Iraqi army soldiers abusing suspected insurgents as US troops, unaware of the camera, shout encouragement. The film also reveals the despair and hopelessness of the local Iraqi people the soldiers encounter each day.
The judges praised the calm, professional camerawork.
“The contrasts within this film are used to great effect – they are very fresh – and very telling.”
Cameraman's Comment
"This was filmed under very trying conditions. My life was in danger more than once. Particularly when I was filming a sequence with the Mahdi Army. The soldiers helped me to an extent, but once you are out with them basically anything can happen. With the US soldiers, I feel I could capture such footage because I was using a palm-sized camera and also because I spent a lot of time with the troops. They got used to me being around.”
BiographyAshwin Raman was born in 1946 in Mumbai, India. He has been a journalist for almost forty years starting with the Times of India in 1969 as a trainee reporter. He was jailed for protesting against Indira Gandhi’s Emergency Rule but with the help of friends, left India for Germany. He spent time in the U.S. and then reported on the war in Nicaragua, writing for Der Spiegel, Die Zeit and the Los Angeles Times. He used a second-hand camera to make his first film, With the Sandinistas. Since then Ashwin has produced over 200 documentaries and numerous news reports – always working as a one-man band. He has spent most of the last six years in Afghanistan and Iraq, reporting for ARD (SWR) and also for Channel Four and CBS.
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