Marco la Via

Searching for Hassan

Edouard Beau

Bakhtiyar Haddad, Marco la Via

“November 2007, I have been asked to go and film a Kurdish battalion of the Iraqi army. This battalion is located in Mosul. I have 48 hours to make a decision. I decide to go. There, a friend gives me his old Hi8 camera with ten tapes. I am a photographer. I have never filmed anything. I have never seen war. For a whole month, I remain close to these soldiers and I film their everyday life, in spite of everything. Long waits, times out, endless wanderings through the city, looking for untraceable terrorists.”