Brian De Palma's (Scarface, Dressed to Kill) furious and incendiary take on the Iraq conflict takes its title from the practice of censoring potentially inflammatory material from public viewing. The film was inspired by the murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, who was raped, shot in the face and set on fire by US soldiers. (Five soldiers were eventually charged with the murder of the girl and her entire family, and four were sentenced to five to 110 years in prison.) From the film's opening credits (words blacked out by a censor's pen) De Palma's visceral style is almost overwhelming in its intensity. The film eschews traditional narrative in favour of a collection of "found" footage (from surveillance camera to YouTube videos), its fractured montage emblematic of a broken country. Filmed with a cast of unknowns, it is a "fictional documentary" meaning it uses real events to tell its story, and most notably real images. (The closing coda of dead and wounded Iraqi citizens is almost unendurable.)

This is a return to form for De Palma (recalling the 70s style of American filmmaking, bleak, serious and pulling absolutely no punches). The film left audiences stunned at the recent Venice Film Festival, where it garnered an almost 10 minute standing ovation. "Controversy will clearly rage around Redacted, especially when it opens in America. But for those who have seen it, the images of that awful appointment in Samarra will linger joltingly in the memory."--The Telegraph

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