War Feels Like War - REVIEWS

Time Out
An immediate, fast-paced and often remarkably candid look at independent
news coverage of the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq. Drawing a
chronological line in the sand, from the pre-assault build up of hardware and
3,000 journalists in Kuwait onwards, Uyarra follows a handful of international
journos with varying degrees of conflict experience as they navigate military
management, while constantly on the lookout for a 'good' story. What
constitutes 'good' - crowds desperate for food aid, corpses in the gutters,
hospital mayhem and the wailing urgency of funerals - becomes the source of
growing concern to some of the newer anchorfolk, unhappy about the 'death of
affect' they might experience. The film doesn't shy away from questions of
dehumanisation, casual brutalities and even occasional 'collusion' between
hacks and grunts, and is also particularly strong on the mechanics of
manoeuvring and the often absurd juxtapositions of extreme events with their
instant playback. Strange days indeed. GE

DVD outsider:
Esteban Uyarra's film followed a group of non-embedded reporters and photographers
during the Iraq war, and managed to capture the chaotic horror of
the situation better than any other documentary on the subject all year. The
film creates a very unsettling sense of 'being there', and by sharing car and
room space with the journalists, we get to share their fears and frustrations, but
also balk when their car stops so that they can take time to photograph a dead
body from just the right angle. Compelling television that deserves, but will
probably not get, a DVD release.

The Guardian
There's a film called Hearts of Darkness, an account by Eleanor Coppola of the
making of her husband's film Apocalypse Now. It was a familiar story, but seen
from one remove. That's how it felt watching War Feels Like War: Storyville
(BBC4), a documentary about journalists in the Iraq conflict last year. The
events were all harshly familiar, it's just that you were seeing them from one
step further back, watching the people who had brought them to us first time
round. The Making of the War in Iraq, it could have been called.

It started with a group of frustrated journalists in Kuwait, not getting over the
border into Iraq, not getting any information, not getting any stories. An
American soldier was giving them some nonsense "story" about how the mail
got delivered to the troops. A pack of war reporters is a strange thing, and full
of paradoxes. There's incredible bravery there, cynicism, shock,
competitiveness, but also solidarity.

Once inside Iraq you saw the good and the bad sides of the press. Mostly they
came over as dedicated and with genuine belief in what they were doing. But
there were a couple of ugly scenes - a family funeral with photographers
swarming all over it, sticking cameras into the faces of weeping women to get

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