Redacted From De Palma

Production Weekly sez: Brian De Palma is to soon start shooting Redacted, a film which will relate the the tragic (true) story of a 14-year old Iraqi girl's rape and murder by American troops. Three other members of her family were also killed by the troops.

The events took place in March, and in November of last year one of the troops, Specialist Barker, agreed to testify against the other four - and as has been noted, this does sound rather like the plot of Casualties of War.

The Production Weekly report has not stated this film will be a documentary, but neither is it a traditional narrative film. They say, "the film's narrative will be told using a mixture of video from news broadcasts, documentary footage, trial coverage, YouTube posts and excerpts from one of the soldier’s video blogs." I guess we don't know yet if these elements will be genuine, or fictionalised especially for the movie.

De Palma has been one of cinema's most provocative, passionate and accomplished makers of war (related) films, and Redacted is not likely to change this fact.