The Moment We've Been Waiting For: Abu Ghraib Documentary to Premiere

You get the feeling the left will still be carping about the alleged horrors of Abu Ghraib 150 years from now.

You don't see any celebrity documentaries about the mass killings of Saddam Hussein. You hear diddly squat about the hundreds of annual public executions in Iran.

The murder and imprisonment of political prisoners in Cuba?

Pfft.

But a few soldiers get out of hand, pose with prisoners and put panties on their heads? Why it's nonstop coverage for five years, now culminating in a documentary, which is sure to sweep up awards and accolades worldwide, just because it makes us looks bad.

Abu Ghraib documentary in Berlin premiere

A FILM about the prisoner abuse scandal at Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail will become the first documentary ever to enter the competition at the Berlin Film Festival next month, organisers said overnight.

Standard Operating Procedure by Oscar-winning director Errol Morris uses recovered footage, reenactments and the notorious photographs published round the world to shed light on the sexual and physical abuse of Iraqi inmates by US troops at the notorious prison outside Baghdad.

"It kept us glued to our seats," Berlinale chief Dieter Kosslick said of the film ahead of the February 7 to 17 event.

"The known facts are presented in a way like you have never seen them before. That is the best thing a documentary can do."

Morris, who will turn 60 next month, won an Academy Award for his incisive 2003 documentary The Fog of War about former US Defence Secretary Robert McNamara.

His films The Thin Blue Line about the death penalty in the United States and A Brief History of Time on the disabled British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking were also international successes.

Mr Kosslick said the line-up of the 58th Berlinale would be less political than in recent years and focus on music in cinema.

Yes, it will be less political by presenting this documentary and bashing George W. Bush over the head once again.