08/05/2007

Dreamachine has signed up for international sales and distribution of Nick Broomfield’s potentially controversial Battle For Haditha. The Iraq-set drama, which is currently shooting in neighbouring Jordan, is a retelling of a 2005 incident where an Iraqi rebel bombing results in the death of a popular US Marine Corporal. The retaliatory Marine attacks led to the death of innocent women and children. In the film, Broomfield will attempt to resolve the question of right and wrong in the theatre of war.

Entirely improvised, the film is based on a detailed treatment by Broomfield and his co-producer Anna Telford. The cast of unknowns, which includes former US Marines and Iraqis, has been quartered in a recreated Marine base where they are under constant surveillance from Broomfield’s camera – Big Brother style.

“Nick Broomfield is the consummate investigative filmmaker with a compelling voice and a unique style,” said Tim Haslam, CEO of Dreamachine. “It’s a story that must be told and Dreamachine look forward to working with Nick to take it to a worldwide audience.” The company’s recent films include Becoming Jane [+see also:
trailer
film profile] starring Anne Hathaway and Woody Allen’s Match Point [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

The director is no stranger to controversy, having courted it in Kurt & Courtney (1998) where he explored the conspiracy theories surrounding Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain’s mysterious death. In Biggie & Tupac (2002), he launched a similar investigation into the deaths of musicians Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur.

Broomfield, who started his career with the cinema verite style of filmmaking, began including himself as part of his films as a way of progressing the narrative. This has influenced his contemporaries such as Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock.

Broomfield’s previous film Ghosts, which focused on the Morecambe Bay tragedy that saw the deaths of 23 Chinese immigrant cockle pickers, won the Solidarity Award at the 2006 San Sebastian Film Festival.