A Ray of Light Films presentation of a Conception Media production. Produced by Natalie Kalustian, Mark Manning, Rana Al-Aiouby. Executive producers, Michelle Rhea, Natalie Kalustian, Mark Manning. Directed by Mark Manning.
With: Tariq Ali, Reza Aslan, Juan Campo, Desmond Tutu, Dennis Kucinich, Maxine Waters, Rana Al-Aiouby.
Even viewers who feel they've OD'd on docu-critiques of the U.S. invasion of Iraq will be intrigued -- if not enraged and appalled -- by "The Road to Fallujah," an earnest overview of the November 2004 campaign by coalition forces against the primarily Sunni city, said to be a "major sanctuary" for Iraqi insurgents. Neophyte filmmaker Mark Manning positioned himself in the right place at the right time to focus on a bad situation made unimaginably worse by shortsighted strategic decisions and apparently indiscriminate ground and air assaults. Result is an overlong but enlightening pic worthy of fest and cable exposure.
Manning, a former California-based offshore oil rig worker, announces his intention early on: Mistrustful of U.S. media coverage of the Iraq occupation, he decided -- after taking "night-school classes" in documentary filmmaking -- to independently investigate events in the city where, in March 2004, an Iraqi mob (reportedly angered by the killing of demonstrators protesting the U.S. military occupation of a local school) infamously slaughtered four American civilian contractors, then proudly paraded the burnt corpses for public inspection.
In one of the pic's more gut-wrenching sequences, Manning interviews relatives of the murdered men, who sadly insist their loved ones would not have approved of the excessive brutality that ensued during the coalition forces' campaign to restore something like order in Fallujah. (White phosphorous, among other extreme measures, resulted in scores of civilian casualties.)
Desmond Tutu, one of several talking heads (including U.S. military vets) who provide pointed commentary, scoffs at the polite terminology of "collateral damage" to describe the unintended killing of innocent bystanders during the Fallujah campaign: "They're somebody's mother, they're somebody's father, they're somebody's daughter." Unfortunately, in footage that is no less impactful for being dismayingly familiar, "The Road to Fallujah" reveals that all too many mothers, fathers and daughters were victims to bombing and gunfire aimed, with callous inaccuracy, at enemy combatants.
Echoing observations of earlier Iraq War docs -- most notably "No End in Sight" -- the pic makes a strong case against, among others, U.S. personnel who inadvertently encouraged an insurgency (and exacerbated tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims) through clueless blundersin the wake of the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Also, the pic suggests the U.S. media muddied the waters with slanted reporting.
Production values are adequate to the task at hand.
Camera (color, DV), Rana Al-Aiouby, Manning, Isam Rasheed; editors, Manning, Natalie Kalustian; music, Greg Ellis, Lisbeth Scott. Reviewed on DVD, Houston, Jan. 12, 2009. (In Slamdance Film Festival -- competing.) Running time: 80 MIN.
Contact the Variety newsroom at
news@variety.com