When American foreign correspondent Jeremy Scahill riskily ventures far from Kabul to cover the aftermath of a US raid which killed Afghan children and pregnant women, what he uncovers contradicts official military denials. That’s just the first step in this gripping investigative doc, which plays out like a classic conspiracy thriller as it follows a trail of clues to the heart of darkness behind President Obama’s good-guy facade.
Scahill may not have the screen charisma of a Hollywood leading man, but he has the integrity to keep on pushing at closed doors even after threats are made to his personal security. He also widens his focus to include Yemen and Somalia and draws a pattern of state-sanctioned assassination by unchecked US special forces and their mercenary hirelings. Compassion for the innocent victims claimed along the way fuels the film’s piercing sense of purpose, lent even greater emotional force by a sombre soundtrack from The Kronos Quartet. Even after ‘The Hurt Locker’ and ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, this brings us chillingly closer to the real story of the post-Iraq shitstorm.