GUNNER PALACE

Gunner Palace builds up a picture of the daily chaos of Iraqi occupation for a group of American soldiers belonging to the 2/3 Field Artillery (called Gunners). Made up of a series of snapshots, anecdotes and incidents, what we see goes beyond your average superficial news reporting and reveals not only the complexity of the Gunners daily life but also explores the grey areas between right and wrong, peacekeeping and oppression. The troops, who are based in the former palace of Sadaam's son Uday, experience the surreal luxury of their surroundings and the daily hostility of the people they came to "save". They are situated in the most hostile area of Baghdadand confront the struggle to carry out their job in conditions of so-called minor combat.

Despite suffering regular attacks by mortars, roadside bombs, grenades and snipers they are also acutely aware of the fickle public gaze that swiftly tires of the same old images of warfare. As one soldier remarks, "For y'all this is just a show but, we live in this movie." In the light of revelations of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers, Gunner Palace shows us the multi-dimensional aspect of the life of a combat soldier and remains neither pro-war nor anti-war. We are just shown an intimate picture of the life of a Gunner and are left to draw conclusions for ourselves.

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