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CONTROVERSIAL ABU GHRAIB FILM ELECTRIFIES BERLINALE
Wednesday, February 13 2008
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A screening at the Berlin Film Festival of Errol Morris's S.O.P.: Standard Operating Procedure about the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in 2003 stunned not a few critics Tuesday night, several of whom suggested that the film could capture the top Golden Bear award. In reporting on the film's premiere, the French news agency Agence France Press observed that the "anemic lineup at the Berlin Film Festival has left critics searching for a challenger to the runaway favorite ... There Will Be Blood," suggesting that S.O.P might fill that bill. Blood has already garnered numerous awards, and the Berlin festival -- the Berlinale, as it is known -- has in the past prided itself in rewarding worthy undiscovered films. If S.O.P should win, it would surprise on a number of levels. No other documentary has ever been chosen for the main competition in the Berlinale's history. And it would place the non-political festival in the position of rewarding a film that accuses the U.S. of perpetrating torture on innocent civilians, many of whom were allegedly rounded up indiscriminately and imprisoned in the early days of the Iraq war. (Former Army specialist Lynndie England, who was sentenced to three years for her role in the torture, says in the film that she came to realize that many of the prisoners who were tortured were ordinary family men who had no role in the insurgency. She also expresses anger that higher-ups went unpunished.)
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