Synopsis

“An exceptional privilege to watch...”
Anthony Barnett, openDemocracy

“To examine and to contemplate on a personal tragedy, and its aftermath, unflinchingly, but with love and artistry; how better to make a documentary film?”
Dennis O’Rourke, CameraWork Pty Ltd

In August 2003, Gil Loescher went to Baghdad on a humanitarian research trip. He and his colleague were in a meeting with the head of the United Nations in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, when a truck full of explosives was driven into the side of the building. Gil was the only survivor from the most devastated section of the building. All the other people with him in the meeting died.

Through poignantly honest narration, and observational scenes of high emotion, his daughter records the family’s recovery during the months after the bomb. Using the camera becomes her way of dealing with the suddenness of the family’s changed reality, and a way of re-visiting the haunting images of the bomb site – a place of both horror and hope.