Iraq: Dying for Mosul

“Iraq. Dying for Mosul” by Bernard Genier | Production: Cythère Productions (Switzerland 2017), 24'

In Mosul, a unique rescue unit operates in the midst of combats to save civilians. David Eubank is a former American officer. He left the army to launch a somewhat unique humanitarian organization, a Christian NGO mainly engaged in war zones. In Mosul, his teams, which include armed nurses, work as close as possible to the front line and save Iraqi lives on a daily basis. They conduct high-risk rescue operations, like saving children amidst their parents’ bodies within range of Islamic fire. In spite of the violent combats beautiful human stories arise…

Bernard Genier, 58, has been covering international news for over thirty years. He began his career as a photojournalist in West Africa, in 1985. Equipped with one of the first portable video cameras, he travelled to Afghanistan to witness the mujahedeen’s struggle against the Red Army. His documentary from the Kabul front was noticed by the Swiss public broadcasting RTS, leading to a long-lasting collaboration that brought him to document conflicts and crisis in former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Afghanistan again and, more recently, Liberia during the West African Ebola virus epidemic. He has also been working as an independent journalist and director, mostly in Burma, producing undercover reports for ARTE, BBC World, NBC and Channel 4. And it was in the Burmese jungle that he gained the confidence of FBR, an atypical humanitarian organization that offered him privileged access to the Battle of Mosul.