Remembrance Day

In the UK, a sea of crosses with red poppies are planted in the earth.

An elderly mother kneels in the mud, in a remembrance section for the Iraq war. Her eyesight is blurry as she desperately tries to locate her son’s cross. Suddenly, her daughter points it out. The mother is excited for a brief moment and then she sinks, further into the earth. She takes out a reading glass until she can see with some clarity the picture of her dead child on a wooden cross with a dot of red. 

In a different timezone, in a province in Iraq, another elderly mother sits alone. She is quietly holding her grief for her son who was killed in the war. Here there are no poppies, no grand acts of remembrance, but the immeasurable pain of the loss is the same. The two women are connected in their silence.

The Iraqi civilian casualties are estimated at more than one million. Millions of others were injured and displaced. What about them? Who remembers them? 

Some feature films were made about the war in Iraq. Some people in dark suits made official inquiries. The Head of Scotland Yard presented correspondence in which he clearly focused on his warning to the then prime minister that Britain had no legal grounds to enter Iraq. Newspapers were filled for a period of time. And then slowly, it all went away. 

No one told the story of the mothers who had lost their children. 

This short film is a tale of two cities, two families, two nations, two sets of parents... 

What remains after you have lost your child? Stories of bravery? Pride in your child’s sacrifice? Patriotism? Pain? 

No. 

What remains is silence. 

This is the story of that silence... 

• Short film, drama, UK and Iraq

• A collaboration with Vardo Films

• Early development

• Screenplay available on request

• The character’s stories are detailed further in an immersive theatre piece