Cannes festival
Moore film shows US Iraqi abuse
BBC News Online
Oscar-winning director Michael Moore has screened at the Cannes Film Festival 2004 what he claims is the first film footage of US soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners. It appears in his new documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11 which also explores alleged connections between the Bush and Bin Laden families. The abuse 'occurred in the field--outside the prison walls', Moore told the film festival.Moore's film, which received its world première in Cannes, on May 17, shows what appear to be US soldiers putting hoods on Iraqi prisoners. Moore, who won an Oscar last year for Bowling For Columbine, said he sent three under-cover film crews to Iraq. 'What this film is going to do is to peel back the layers so the [American] people can see what is really going on', Michael Moore said on one example of alleged abuse. The world had seen now notorious photographs from Abu Gharib prison, near Baghdad--but no photos or footage from outside a prison until now, he said. Soldiers in Moore's film were shown outdoors ridiculing a man covered in a blanket on the ground, calling him 'Ali Baba'. 'It was an older man who was actually drunk, and it was early in the morning, and he was lying on the ground on a stretcher with a blanket over him,' Moore said. The footage was shot in Samarra in December 2003, he told BBC. Film studio Disney has refused to distribute the film and Moore is now having trouble finding another distributor to release the film on his preferred 4 July release date. Film critic Derek Malcolm gave his verdict on the film, saying, 'I think it's over-long and quite boring in parts but it is strong in other sections. It is a more even-handed offering than Moore's previous films. But one is not very shocked by the film.'
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The director's movie has been the talk of the festival |
