On a chilly morning on a frozen estuary a meter above the river Pirita in northern Estonia we sparked up a chat with a fisherman we’ll call John. It turned out he’s a former British soldier of nine years and has now gone over to the private sector. Yep, he’s one of those mercenaries who worked in Iraq back when people were still mad about Saddam Hussein. The whole wide world knows about these guys already but with a brand-new war starting in Afghanistan today, we’re feeling nostalgic for the way things used to be fucked up. We’re sharing our interview with him. Read more »
Posts Tagged ‘iraq’
Good benefits and lots of traveling
We just wanted to know about a pretty little video and look what happened
Usama Alshaibi’s known for stirring up serious political shit with a pervo swizzle stick; his last completed feature, Nice Bombs, in which he revisits his motherland Iraq and ends up just like the rest of the U.S.—having no conclusion, no idea really what to make of the enormous mess—pissed off a lot of people. When we stumbled on this strange, magical video that feels like some kind of haunted video feedback loop, which he made with his wife Kristie (click below to watch it), we thought we’d found something that was just pretty great to look at, a miniature respite from his workaday leanings. But when we asked him to talk about it, that was a jack-in-the-box of worms that led to a discussion about his recent film, Profane. Seems he just can’t get away from the deep, dark stuff. Not that we want him to. Here, he’ll explain it all in his own words, but don’t click any further unless you’re a grown-up.
