Only the Dead

Theatrical feature documentary Only the Dead is the story of what happens when one ordinary man, an Australian journalist transplanted into the Middle East by the reverberations of 9/11, butts into history. It is a journey that courses through the deepest recesses of the Iraq war, revealing a darkness lurking in his own heart. A darkness that he never knew was there. The invasion of Iraq has ended, and the Americans are celebrating victory. The year is 2003.The international press corps revel in the Baghdad “Summer of Love”, there is barely a spare hotel room in the entire city. Reporters of all nationalities scramble for stories of the abuses of Saddam’s fallen regime of WMD’s, of reconstruction, of liberation. There are pool parties, and restaurant outings, and dinner-party circuits. Occasionally, Coalition forces are attacked, but always elsewhere, somewhere in the background. All the while however, alone and in secret one man, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the most viciousal Qaeda leader the world has ever seen, is planning the real war. Step- by-step he lays out his plan in a letter to Osama bin Laden: the suicide truck bombings the bloody horrors of the civil war the televised beheadings. He carries out his grand design to perfection,bringing the country to its knees, almost single handedly transforming the invasion into one of the most brutal conflicts our time and a catastrophe for the planet’s only superpower...and he does it all on camera. And then, when he’s finally ready to reveal himself, to “go public” as he foretold bin Laden, what does Zarqawi do with the film that will shock the world, that will change the war forever? He gives it to Michael Ware. Of all people. A hard-drinking, hard-running, maverick Australian reporting for American news outlets. The tape Zarqawi gives him, having handpicked Ware by name, sets our correspondent off on an epic voyage as he seeks answers. As he seeks what he thinks will be the Truth.