You are Not a Soldier (2021) Movie Script
THE UNIVERSE WALKS THIS WAY
IN ALL DIRECTIONS
LIKE BELLOWS FULL OF EMPTINESS
BLOWING ASHES THAT REVIVE
Close your eyes.
Now it's my turn
to tell you a story.
You were 50 when I was born.
I was afraid you'd die
at any moment.
That was my biggest fear.
- I've always loved sitting
- Next to you,
holding your hand
and hearing your stories.
How you were eager to fight
in World War II.
- It didn't happen
- As you expected.
- But why did you get
- So frustrated
when peace was declared
- before you joined the Allies
- In the battlefront?
Why weren't you thankful, Dad?
War was over.
- You've never felt the blood,
- The hate,
the smell of death
in the warzone.
I've always believed
this was a gift.
But to you
- it is the interrupted story
- Of a soldier.
I never understood it, Dad.
I've never been in a warzone.
Never met a soldier.
War came to me
in a different way.
Through the work
of a war photographer.
A father, like you.
- He allowed me
- To explore his lenses to tell
the story of an information
combatant of our time.
- But I wanted to go beyond
- The action on the front lines
and dive deep in his anguish.
And I realized his job goes
beyond the factual value.
- There's a deep connection
- Between him
and the ones experiencing
violence and trauma.
And doing so,
Andr Liohn crosses
a disturbing frontier
between life and death.
LIBYA, ARAB SPRING 2011
He's a little kid.
He's from Qaddafi's side...
They'll catch him.
Is he a thief?
No, no, no.
No filming, no filming.
Democracy! Qaddafi no!
Qaddafi no!
We are democracy.
We are democracy.
I swear to God,
no one will kill you.
Go, go, move.
No one will catch you.
- Godspeed! Leave him alone,
- Leave him alone.
Sorry, my friend. Sorry, sorry.
Sorry, sorry, sorry.
Qaddafi, Qaddafi, no, no, no.
Here, yes.
Qaddafi says no!
Qaddafi says no!
Guys, he's filming you!
-No camera!
-Why no camera?
Why no camera?
Qaddafi says no camera.
Qaddafi says no camera.
Qaddafi. Not you.
Qaddafi says no camera.
No minute, I film. I film.
No, no.
Jump in. Drive.
Don't cry. You're a man.
He's afraid. He's shivering
Leave it between him and me!
Give me some space.
Let him pass, people.
Let him pass.
For your parent's sake!
Is this a country?
-I swear, you should be careful.
-Ok man, calm down.
The press is filming you, man!
I swear to God. That's a shame.
They want to kill this kid.
They want to kill him, man.
Hello!
It's your dad!
Raffaella,
do what you have to do.
-Well, choose, then.
-I have to film.
-Hello!
-Hello.
LIBYA, SIRTE 2011
I'm not afraid to say
that I have a mission now.
Everyone has a mission.
It's not a messianic mission.
It's not more important
than any other one.
I have a function
more than a mission.
- That thing you have to get
- On video!
What I did, in my profession,
to try to follow
as well as I could
a tradition of people
trying to find answers
for things that most of the time
have absolutely no answer,
no logical explanation for that.
I decided to do it
through the method
of war photography.
But this tradition
is in transformation
all the time as well.
Now, it's on to photography.
The Robert Capa Gold Medal for
exceptional courage enterprise,
- which is sponsored
- By Time Magazine, ROBERT CAPA GOLD
goes to Andr Liohn.
- The pictures from Almost Dawn
- In Libya
- were taken
- On great personal risk
in the tradition of Robert Capa.
In Liohn's own words:
'We all paid high prices
for those pictures to exist.
And those pictures exist
because real human beings
suffered immeasurably.'
- There's no most important prize
- In the world.
There's no such thing.
Every prize has a criterion,
and those criteria are
not always fair ones.
The people that gave me
the prize
have actually absolutely
nothing to do
with the story of the people
- I've photographed
- To get a prize.
This day, one year ago,
I was sitting in Misrata
in a room, in a little apartment
in a hospital,
talking with Marie Colvin
about...
I had just an experience
that I just died, you know?
We go back to this room
and I tell her:
'Marie,
I'm lucky that I came back.'
Allah is the greatest!
Allah is the greatest!
There is no God but Allah!
It's not that serious.
Don't stand watching it.
Pull him!
And Marie said: 'Man,
there's no other end
for people like us, you know?'
And she was right in her case.
MARIE COLVIN/FRONTLINE REPORTER
1956 - 2012
And that was happening just,
like, two days after
Chris Hondros
and Tim Hetherington died
in Misrata.
And it was very heavy.
I didn't expect Libya to be
as Libya was.
Libya took far longer time,
and far more lives than we
expected it to take.
I want a group to stay here
to inform us
and establish contact
between Haj Nouri and you.
And you tell me 'come',
then I'll come to you.
Do you understand?
Ahmed!
Andr is staying with me
in the car.
- When you go, send someone
- Who knows the way.
Listen!
-Andr, you go to a family?
-Which family?
Family in danger, please.
They'll push them from a house.
Who?
Okay, let's go.
Follow the small side roads.
Important, important, important,
family, family.
Hospital!
It's ok, get in the car!
Allah is great! Allah is great!
There's no God but Allah!
Don't be afraid!
Come in, come in!
It's okay, we came to save you.
I have it, I have it.
Come here, come here.
Hey guys, calm down!
The road ahead is clear.
Allah is the greatest!
Allah is the greatest!
Allah is the greatest!
Allah is the greatest!
There is no God but Allah!
Allah is great! Allah is great!
Allah is great! Allah is great!
No problem, no problem,
no problem, no problem...
Open the car for me!
Close it! Just a little bit,
just a little bit...
Andr, no speak.
Okay.
Here, here!
Very important. Family Qaddafi.
Close the window!
This is very important,
family Qaddafi!
Excuse me, Andr.
At that moment,
for me the sensation,
the feeling of being there
was something almost like,
kind of a religious thing.
I don't know if that was
adrenaline or what was that,
but we were like, extremely,
extremely alive.
I felt... All these years,
it's still crazy.
Because I felt, as I said
there was something amazing
happening.
Don't speak, don't speak.
Go back.
Jump, jump!
I felt like:
'What are we doing?'
We were like...
Fighting for physical space
with these people
who are here to kill or die.
He's there. Can you see him?
Put him down.
After all that,
everything got extremely calm.
And I remember,
like, hearing birds...
Immediately started
asking myself:
'Why are they not killing us?'
This is a bad signal.
Give them space.
- Give them space,
- Give them space.
Give them space.
Breaking news out of Libya.
10 died in Libya yesterday.
War now claimed the lives of two
exceptional photojournalists.
Chris Hondros,
- A still photographer
for the Getty News Agency,
and also acclaimed
photojournalist
Tim Hetherington
The footage also features
award-winning photographers
Tim Hetherington
and Chris Hondros also there
to document the successful
rescue of civilian hostages.
An hour after this scene,
Hetherington and Hondros
were killed by a mortar.
When my daughter was around
five years old, I think,
she asked: 'If you can die,
why do you do this kind of job?
What is the function?'
And then I asked her
if she remembered
the story of
Little Red Riding Hood.
And she said: 'Yes,
of course I do remember.'
I said: 'How do you know
all the story?'
You know the story because
someone wrote the story.
Someone had to write the story.
And someone probably
had to go see
what exactly
was happening there.
This is the work that I do.
I go to places where, sometimes,
people attack children
or attack the grandmothers,
the fathers, the mothers...
If no one goes there
to see what's happening,
we won't be able to tell
the story to other people.
-Where do you want the trap?
-Here.
Let's do it this way...
-Of course, now we are...
-We won't make it.
Of course we'll make it.
-Will you take him to war?
-What?
-The kitten.
-Of course not.
- -Why not?
- -Why should I take him to war?
-So he becomes a soldier.
-Poor thing.
-So he becomes one of the army.
-Poor thing.
-Why does he say 'meow'?
-Come here.
Is he angry?
I'll explain you
how this huge trap works.
-Now it's coming.
-I'm going to get him.
No, leave him there.
He'll notice the thread.
But he doesn't understand
the thread is a trap.
-Why are you there...?
-He's coming!
-Pull it.
-Stay calm...
-Pull it!
-Yes!
We got it!
- -Come and feel the heart.
- -No, no.
-Come here, give me your hand.
-I'm scared.
-Come, you do it with dad.
-I'm afraid of the kitten.
-Feel the heart.
-Why?
Here, here.
-See it's racing?
-Yes.
- -What does it remind you of?
- -What?
- -Your heart.
- -It's not my heart.
- When we used to go deep
- In the sea.
Yes, you made me dive
and my heart beat very fast.
You were afraid
and he's afraid now.
You know, he...
Dad, can you throw him
like this?
Anton, he's a puppy
just like you.
But he's a cat puppy,
and you're a human puppy.
I'm a child...
But how old is he?
You both are puppies.
-How old is he?
-You got it?
I think he's one month old.
But did you understand
that you both are puppies?
Lyah! Lyah!
We've got the kitten!
Do you want to see it?
You see, she escaped.
First she was sleeping.
Stay calm.
When will we meet again?
Who?
The two, the three of us.
Don't go, dad.
I want you to stay.
But how do you wash yourself
when you go to Iraq?
We stay many days
without taking a shower.
I've been almost 15 days
without taking a shower.
It's a habit for you.
We must sleep on the ground.
We have to sleep there.
There are no mattresses?
Not always, but sometimes, yes.
Why not?
When there are not mattresses.
You're not always
in the same place?
No, we change places.
-You live in Erbil?
-Yes.
-Are there mattresses there?
-In Erbil, yes, there are.
-And you sleep in Erbil?
-No, I sleep where there is war.
-Sometimes.
-No, often.
-But usually you sleep in Erbil.
-The house is in Erbil.
But I spend many days in Mosul,
where there is war.
And then there are nights...
Look how she sleeps.
That you can't even sleep.
Why not?
Because it's dangerous,
you have to stay awake.
And what do you do?
I'm there with the soldiers.
I talk to them, I wait.
'How is life, guys?'
We talk about different things.
Look, you're almost
ten years old.
What do you think
about dad's work?
That it's dangerous.
And then?
Two, it's dangerous.
That's all you think
about dad's work?
Yes! That's interesting.
Really?
See how she sleeps.
Come on, what should we do?
I have to leave today...
What can we do with the cat?
Sit down there,
but without crying.
We must not cry.
Please,
see how beautiful she is?
-I know, I know...
-Can't you take her?
In Iraq? No, I can't.
This way,
she becomes a military cat.
If I lived here,
I could keep her, no problem.
Yes, but you would have
to choose another job.
-What job?
-Policeman.
So you could keep the cat
and stay here.
Like Adam.
I can't be a policeman in Italy.
Why not?
You must be Italian
to work as a policeman.
Here we go!
Anton, I want to hold her too.
-Is her heart beating very fast?
-Go kids, go!
I'm walking slowly because
otherwise she gets scared.
-Go on, go on.
-She gets scared.
This is daddy,
and this is Antonello.
- -Are you making a movie?
- -Yes.
-Let me see.
-I'm doing it.
Go ahead.
We see that dad wants death.
Anton!
I was born in a place,
in a time, in a family,
where many things
were there to fear.
It wasn't a very welcoming
environment.
It was dangerous in many ways.
This!
What?
A bomb.
Can I walk with you?
It is very dangerous here, man.
Come, come!
We lived in a very poor house,
not like a shanty town,
but it was very close to that.
There was a factory, a fabric.
And just like,
in front of our house,
there was a landfill
that the factory used
to dispose all the rest
of the material.
And we, kids,
we used to go there
to look for materials
that we could use
to make toys to play with.
Thank you.
When I was 6 years old,
- my parents were getting married
- At the church.
I remember I wanted
to go around the church,
but no one would allow me.
- So they gave me a small camera,
- And they said:
'Ok, cool. Stay quiet.'
But then, with the camera
in my hands, I understood
that I could go anywhere in
the church that I wanted to go.
I could go anywhere.
I could make pictures,
I could, you know,
come close to people.
But from that day
until I was 31,
I never touched a camera again.
But the idea of photography
was always in my mind
from that day.
We've always had
financial problems. Always.
From as long as I can remember.
Yes, but in that time our salary
was equivalent to
one minimum wage and a half.
The job offers in Botucatu
were really bad.
But it was a very good salary.
- I remember Leandro used to drink
- Water with sugar in a bottle.
But you don't know
why he drank it.
Why?
- Because he wanted to nurse
- All the time, he used to say:
'Nurse me!'
I'd tell him: 'The milk
isn't here yet, it's coming.'
- Then he'd ask
- For water with sugar.
- I remember we didn't have
- A fridge as well.
But we bought one later.
Much later.
We had a fridge.
It was humble,
but that's how we were.
The problem was the house,
because it was very bad,
- but that was because your dad
- Is stubborn.
Did you fix it here, dad?
Yes, the sidewalk is here now.
- You've changed everything
- In here.
There was a wardrobe here
in the middle.
This was our bedroom,
this was theirs.
And there was the kitchen.
I remember when I was little
that Dad used to drink.
I wasn't even four yet.
- -But then he stopped.
- -No, he didn't.
He stopped very, very late.
-No, son...
-He drank, he hit you...
Do you know when your dad
stopped drinking?
- -I do.
- -When?
When we went to Dourados.
But then he started doing drugs.
You knew it.
But then he stopped as well.
He stopped after everyone's
lives were destroyed.
Yours isn't destroyed.
Yes, I've built it.
But it was destroyed.
The worst is that I didn't think
that you were bad.
How so?
I think I was blind,
I didn't realize you were...
I didn't know you were bad.
-How so?
-I didn't know, son.
What did you think?
You didn't give me much space
to talk to you.
Did you? You didn't. So.
-You didn't.
-But was it my fault?
- You had to seek contact
- With your son, didn't you?
But more than I did, son?
My God, more contact that
I tried seeking with you?
-You didn't give me space.
-Why?
Because you still don't.
But why do you think?
The men in my family,
they were hard
where a man should be hard.
If you are not hard enough,
you know, like my father,
my father was weak.
They usually call this
the Sleeping Giant.
I spent my entire teenage years
going in there alone
and doing drugs there.
I wanted to do drugs alone,
to drink alone, to be alone,
isolated from the world.
- I would stay there.
- It was haunted, I used to say:
- 'If it is haunted,
- Then I'll go there.
I'll go see.'
- I wanted to see the devil
- In front of me,
- I would go there and say:
- 'Where is the devil?'
Many times I'd be there asking
where is the devil.
Because they told me
the devil was real.
And I was in there asking
where was the devil.
IRAQ, MOSUL, 2016
OFFENSIVE AGAINST ISIS
- -Hey.
- -How are you?
Hey, man.
There.
Wait, wait, wait.
There is a sandstorm
in here right now.
It has covered the sky.
So the planes, the drones can't
know exactly where Daesh is.
And this is the time
when they attack.
We are under heavy Daesh fire.
This is the most advanced spot
inside Mosul.
We are very close to the Mosque
where the Daesh had their base.
Where they still do.
Ziad, come.
Why don't you come?
- -No, no!
- -He doesn't have.
Hello! How are you?
God bless you.
What are you doing?
Very good.
- Cross!
- Cross, cross!
Cross!
Wait
Did I shoot them?
You can't see them.
He shot them.
Move.
No, no, don't shoot!
No, no don't shoot.
He will hit you.
What's wrong with you?
He's in the markets
in front of us.
- Honestly, did you see
- Where he hit you?
That's high.
I told you to move.
It wasn't that high.
Wait!
Did you see the fire, Mustafa?
Look, it's there.
Go! Go!
Photography is not an end.
I don't think I should put
kind of a self-censorship upon
- how much I want to understand
- About the world
through photography.
IRAQ, MOSUL, 2016
OFFENSIVE AGAINST ISIS
Stop, stop!
His phone fell from his pocket.
Why are you standing there?
On the wall.
Let's go?
General, general!
Problems.
No.
Sir.
Hey, hey...
Come!
We're hot, we're hot,
come!
Let's go over there.
Let's go, let's go.
Go over there, go over there.
Go, go, go!
- -Are you alright?
- -I am.
- I don't know how I didn't
- Just die.
Are you alright, man?
Come!
Go, go, go!
Go, go!
Are you okay?
I'm fine, I'm fine.
- Are we going together
- Or separate?
Separate.
Pay attention when you do this,
so you don't trip.
- -Can we go, Andr?
- -Come on, come on!
We need protection!
Joo!
- I was going and that thing
- Blew up,
with that red gas.
I was going and we came back.
-Which red thing blew up?
-Like a flare.
It flew by like fireworks.
No, it was an RPG.
An RPG.
-Did anyone step on it?
-No, they fired RPGs at us.
A man died in front of me.
What killed him?
He was shot.
And the General was almost
shot here, it was close.
He went away, he went away.
BRAZILIAN PHOTOJOURNALISNo, no.
Okay.
Now we're in the car of other
French journalists,
we are going to the front.
This region in the desert
is very volatile,
because you can see
there's no place to hide.
The combat happens many times
in plain areas
with no place to stay,
so they happen a lot
in these little villages
and that go from one
to the other.
People here,
they don't like journalists.
The combatants see journalists
with great suspicion,
because many of them are told
that popular forces...
That they are militias.
And this, in their opinion,
is not the truth.
But anyway, this is a problem
we always have.
Because how can we work
without making propaganda,
but also without
going through many risks
all the time?
Because it is risky.
Or are they advancing
towards the road?
This road takes you to Mosul.
it's all selfies for them.
FRENCH PHOTOJOURNALISThis group here,
they have their own
press channel.
So they are able to expose
what they want to expose
without needing to go through
the journalists' criteria,
the journalists' criticisms.
And this has made our lives,
it became much harder,
because before they needed us,
they needed
professional journalists,
with access to media channels,
so they could prove the world
they're heroes,
and not murderers.
They don't need this anymore,
they have a super
professional camera
that is super easy to use,
a person with a microphone
and they ask the questions
that they want
- and in the situation,
- There is nothing going on here,
so the soldiers
have put themselves
in position just to do
an interview
that sums up reality
to a little square this size
- and doesn't show everything
- That is going on in here.
And then...
And that's it.
They are able to put the reality
exactly how they want it.
Guys, get into the car quickly.
Come on! Quickly!
You guys want to go? Let's go.
ISIS, they want to take
one defense right now.
There are lots of stray bullets
and bombings in here,
- probably mortars falling
- Right now.
We had to make a way
through the desert, because
we were unable to access
the main road,
and we're here
at the main trench,
over there,
about one and a half mile
there are some guys from ISIS.
Watch out, Joo!
Heads up, brother.
-Hold tight, Joo.
-I'm doing it, dammit!
Shit...
Quickly, quickly.
- He's getting off the car,
- He's getting off the car.
Go, quickly, quickly.
Come here, Joo.
Come here.
Come on, come on.
It's okay, come.
It's okay, it's okay.
The cameraman and his friend.
Take this. Wear it.
Joo, stay very low right now.
We are under fire.
Get down, get down!
Where are you going?
- Go before him
- So he sees how it is.
From there, look.
We have to run there.
Ok. Let's go.
Follow me on five! Okay?
When I tell you so!
Protect us.
Alright?
Let's go.
Where are the other guys?
I have no idea.
Shoot in that direction.
Go there.
No, stay over here, please.
No.
-No, it's fine, it's fine.
-No, it's not.
-Come on!
-Your security!
There's a sound of a plane.
Me. I want to take a picture
with you.
They killed two.
Oh, God!
Oh, God!
The one who went there.
Can you tell me who was he?
Let me go there, man.
Over there? No, it's not safe,
you're not a soldier.
You are not.
Your security is my fucking
concern, please, stay over here.
Look, I understand...
- No, you don't understand,
- There are snipers over there,
stay over here.
In the house there, with...
Let's go!
Go down!
Hang on.
Hang in there.
It's fine. It's fine!
Hold on.
Hold on.
Hold on.
Hold on, man.
Wait.
- -I can't take it.
- -What?
I can't take it.
Alright.
God is the greatest!
- Did you see the size
- Of that weapon?
What makes the difference here
are weapons of that caliber.
And then...
Both ISIS and them are attacking
with weapons of that caliber.
So it's hard to know exactly
what is going on,
how close they are, how far.
It is all very high caliber stuff.
Very high.
They injured
Abdul Rahman Al-Sahlab.
The important...
We chose to be here,
so now we need to hang on
until it's done.
That's it.
Did you see the missile?
- Don't shoot!
- They are our group!
Naturally, everyone is nervous.
Everyone is nervous right now.
It ceases after dark,
doesn't it?
No. No.
They go on until it's over.
It's not a job you go back home at six.
We don't even know
how's the road to go back.
Brother, go to the other place.
Now... Okay.
He's asking us to go there.
- He may get shot accidentally.
- It happens sometimes.
Get up!
I swear to God, I'll hit him!
Up! Higher!
It's a trap. It has a bomb.
Be careful.
They're talking about
a car bomb now.
Be careful, there's a car bomb
coming in your direction.
They're talking about
a car bomb!
Be careful!
That's their main weapon here,
the car bomb.
Shoot!
It exploded.
A car bomb exploded!
They blew up a car bomb
just now.
Abu Yakdhan,
where did it explode?
Look at the smoke over there!
Ali!
Ali, this is captain Ahmed!
-We'll go over there?
-No, no.
Let's go there with...
- Ali, this is the captain.
- Captain.
- Beware when you pass
- Near windows.
Shoot in that direction.
These are our people.
- -Andr, let's go into the house!
- -There's fire from here.
I know! They're under here.
Go down, go down.
Come!
- Don't you think
- We are too exposed here?
No, not here.
I'm worried
about the French guys.
I'm not feeling very safe.
- -Here?
- -Yes.
- No, I don't want to do this
- Anymore.
I'm just thinking out loud.
Here's what I always say:
there are a lot of people
who find me or who contact me
- telling that their dream
- Is to come here,
cover the war and such.
And I never pay attention
to these people. I never do.
Because this is not
a dream coming true.
This is something else.
This is journalism.
You're at risk for journalism.
Look at the people here, man.
This is a nightmare for them.
- This, in these people's lives,
- Is a nightmare.
So, I think whoever comes here
thinking they are going
to fulfill a dream,
they're already starting out wrong.
I think coming here has to be
a consequence of something.
But not a dream.
It may even be that the guy
wants to do it out of a dream,
but then I'm not going
to pay attention.
At least I won't.
Maybe someone else does.
So that's it.
And why did you start it then,
doing this?
- I started because
- I had things in my life,
consequences of my life
that led me to do this.
What consequences?
A lot of things in life, man.
That happens in life.
Now it's a little bit disastrous
to talk about it.
It stopped.
People are already nervous.
Come, come!
They are no longer...
They don't want to worry...
Get in the car!
- They don't want to worry about
- The photographers now,
the journalists.
We're not able to work.
Stay there.
We're not able to work.
And some mortars fell down next to us,
and you can't play
around mortars.
This house is...
They know exactly
where this house is.
So it's easy for them
to be able to hit the house.
Did you locate the French?
I'm trying to find them right now.
Okay.
We still don't know
where the French are.
You can see the cars are going
with their lights off.
So they have less risk
of being attacked.
But the problem is that
the French are not with us, man.
The problem now is that
the French are not with us.
And...
I get worried, man.
Now...
Well, there's not much to say.
- You already lost
- A lot of friends, right?
I already lost several friends.
My friendship with Jim...
It got really, like, stronger,
when we worked together
in Sirte, Libya.
And this is a place
where Jim and I
worked together for many,
many days,
in many situations there.
Jim was a kind of a person
that you could have,
you could feel like
you were talking
straight to a brother.
Today,
the entire world is appalled
by the brutal murder
of Jim Foley
by the terrorist group, ISIL.
Jim was a journalist, a son,
a brother and a friend.
James Foley, an American
freelance journalist,
- has been killed by members
- Of the Islamic State...
The murderer of James Foley...
The video showing the execution
- of the American photojournalist,
- James Foley,
- by Islamic State militants
- Is real.
My very dear friend died...
And that was the most
difficult day in my life.
And that was the absolutely
worst moment of my life.
Like, when I heard...
It was the most painful moment
of my life, like...
It wasn't a kind of...
It wasn't supposed to be
a physical pain,
but turned to be even like
a physical pain, you know...
Everything was painful.
Everything in my body.
Everything inside me died.
It was hurting.
Everything was missing.
Everything was missing
in my life.
I didn't have my children.
I wasn't sure when I would
be able to see them again.
That was by itself very,
very painful.
I didn't have a job anymore,
because I had decided
not to go back
to war zones anymore.
- I was completely convinced
- Of that.
I was feeling completely empty.
Depressed, I was just like,
very sad.
And then,
immediately I thought that:
"Man, you have been,
for so long,
trying as hard as you can
to survive...
And now you're just like
trying to kill yourself here."
And then I decided not to fall.
I had to decide not to fall.
LIBYA, SIRTE, 2016
OFFENSIVE AGAINST ISIS
Libya was in the saddest
period of time.
- Libyans were killing Libyans
- Once again.
And, somehow, people were trying
to take their lives as martyrs,
because it's much better.
It's much like...
If you want to die,
it's better to die as a martyr
than to die as a suicidal.
Come back here!
LEBANESE PHOTOJOURNALISI remember observing Qader,
that he was behaving suicidal that day.
God is the greatest!
At the time when he died,
he was happy.
He had just become a father.
He died at the best moment of his life.
We're moving back
to the hospital now,
because my friend Abdul Qader
was shot in the head by a sniper
here in Sirte.
He's dead there now,
in an ambulance.
And I have with him, with me,
his cameras.
And then I understood that I too
was trying to die as a martyr.
Or maybe I wasn't even trying
to die as a martyr or any of that.
I was just not afraid of dying.
Daddy's work,
I think it's the worst.
The ugliest one,
because it's dangerous.
He can die in that job.
They can shoot, kill, stab him.
Dad's job sucks.
It sucks, it really,
really, really sucks!
Why didn't he choose
another one?
Come on, now!
But this is a lousy job.
You can make money,
or get another job, get fired!
Wait, go up there.
Get fired!
You have a shitty job!
It's a shitty job,
it makes me sick,
it makes me puke!
Hey, you can die there!
You can die there, you know?
Do you understand
that you can die there?
And if I die?
-And if I don't die?
-And if you do?
What?
Anton?
Anton, my son...
ITALY, ROME
- SEPTEMBER 7TH, 2017
He just said that
my work is stupid, in Italian.
He said that
" una merda di lavoro".
"Una merda".
He says that my work is a shit.
It is, you know? It is.
I would like to hear
from my son that...
"I know what you're doing,
I respect what you're doing,
I understand
what you're doing...
I know that you're doing
something that
I don't really understand
what it is,
but I respect."
"Your work is shit."
It probably is shit.
You know.
And I'm probably going
to die here with a car accident.
A meaningless ruin.
That, every now and then,
someone comes to visit.
And think that
what this people did
was something great.
What this people did
has some value,
what this people did
sometime had some reason.
Nothing has a reason, you know?
Mosul now, you know?
All these people who died...
Hassan died.
And it's pretty fucked up when you
look at someone in their eyes,
and then you understand
that they will die.
And I can't really look
at my eyes and see:
"Hey, motherfucker.
What are you doing?
You're going to die, man.
You're going to die sometime.
And no one's
going to remember you."
And you know what? Maybe
I do want people to remember me.
Maybe I just don't want
my kids to remember me.
Maybe I want other people
to remember me too.
I don't know, I don't know.
I don't fucking know, man.
Mosul is finished today.
They recaptured all the...
The entire city.
They now... The Iraqi army
control the city.
And "Al-Hurrah" you know?
And I was not there.
Somehow, I feel guilty for that.
Because many of my friends
in the Iraqi army died...
I don't think
that they believed that
Iraq was going to be
a better place just because...
Now they have Mosul back,
and I don't think that people
from Mosul will think the same.
I think my fucking heart
is going to stop anytime.
That I am, as anyone else,
I am a stupid asshole
that can't stay away
from a fucking camera.
Fucking motherfucker.
Strong war photographer.
There is a reason for that.
I see the reason for that.
Fuck...
Fuck...
People make pictures thinking
their pictures are unique...
You see? These people,
- they think that their pictures
- Are unique.
See this guy here?
He thinks his picture is unique.
You see, it's crazy...
Everybody doing pictures
of the Coliseum
with their phones,
like I'm doing it.
Pretending to be unique.
Drinking water...
They create a Coliseum
because of all of us,
motherfuckers wandering...
Over here. That's it.
That's it.
I knew that one day
everybody would have
mobile phones, cameras...
That the image of anything
would have no meaning,
and we all would be
showing ourselves
in front of the Coliseum,
thinking that what you are doing
is something special.
Dad...
I'll never forget
how proud you were
when I decided
to study journalism.
And now, two decades later,
in Brazil and in many parts
of the world,
journalists are facing threats.
Censorship.
Political and economic pressure.
Intimidation.
And with social media,
anyone can publish information.
This also upsets
the ethics of journalism.
All that made deep scars
in Liohn's perspective of his path.
In Iraq,
ISIS was being defeated.
No newspaper,
no media outlet has agreed
to pay for his return to Mosul.
But I wanted to keep documenting
- his routine in the battlefront
- Against ISIS.
At this point, he was a man
trying to find his way
in a fractured reality.
He still decided to go back
to his mission in the warzone.
Andr believed he was late.
- The access to the battlefront
- Had been blocked
by the Iraqi army.
- It was a week after the declaration
- Of taking Mosul back
by the Prime Minister
Haider al-Abadi.
Liohn witnessed
that this declaration was,
in his own words,
a declaration about
anything else
but the truth.
IRAQ, MOSUL JULY 7TH, 2017
OFFENSIVE AGAINST ISIS
Photo?
He is taking pictures!
He's not ISIS, he's not ISIS.
Who is this?
He's a photographer.
Brazil.
Brazilian from Brazil.
- -I want to speak with you.
- -Yes.
- -Do you speak English?
- -Yes.
- -Come here.
- -Okay.
How are you?
Hard, hard.
-How old are you?
-Forty-three.
What are you doing here?
I came with Captain Imad.
And I work with...
Sit down, sit down.
Sit down, my friend.
-What are you doing?
-I'm shooting a video.
No, no. Pictures, pictures.
- What TV channel do you work for?
- What's the name of it?
The name of it...
Where is the picture
you took here?
-Pictures, pictures.
-Brazil.
I know. Why did you
ask him for pictures?
What is he saying, sir?
He's from Brazil,
he's Brazilian.
Brazil.
A little Arabic.
He's speaking Arabic.
A little bit.
We killed him.
-I want to go with you.
-To Brazil?
Go with you. Let's go.
Why? Are you afraid?
God bless you.
Come here.
No, no.
From here.
This is the one.
-Are you afraid from me?
-No, no. Not afraid.
Dead.
They don't want you
to take the picture.
They don't want
to take pictures?
They don't want you
to take the picture.
I'll try to go there
in that region,
because I'm here
with their federal police.
That region is controlled
by the Iraqi Special Forces,
which I don't have
contacts with them.
But I want to get as close as I can
from the frontline
and see if I can document that.
What's wrong?
They're going to put
the last Iraqi flag
in the last place
that was controlled by ISIS.
So they're going to do this now.
Apparently now the war
against Daesh,
here in Mosul, at least,
is now finished, because
they are bombing the very last
point where they were.
The members of Daesh.
I saw it.
The helicopter was
making some recognition flights
here now, you know?
And there's now
this M29 helicopter.
What apparently is
the end of Daesh.
- It's a very strange feeling.
- I don't think,
I don't know if there are
other journalists there.
They have been blocking
the entrance of journalists here
these days, because
the Iraqi Prime Minister...
He declared that Mosul
was free from Islamic State
a week before, a week too early.
And...
And this group here of soldiers
that I'm with,
they're here...
They're here to take
any member of the Islamic State
that tries to escape
through the river here.
They capture the person
and they kill the person.
Here's another one.
Allah!
There is a dead woman.
There's a family.
That died here.
Four children
and the mother.
So many bodies...
It's a very strange feeling
that after all these months
I'm here experiencing that.
Yes.
I don't think there's any other
journalists here.
I understand these people.
It's their country.
Don't stop.
My God. There's so many
bodies here.
I have to walk
in dead people.
I don't want to walk
on these dead people.
It's not right to do that.
You can see how much destruction
this war took. Made.
I don't even know if they can
call it
a victory.
There's so much pain
and destruction
that this war created.
I think I'm not going to stay
for the cake.
Because I have to already leave.
The commander is there.
I'm going home now.
It's enough.
Before they arrest me
and delete all the material that I have.
So many bodies.
I have never seen
anything like that.
And I'm lost.
Man, so many children died...
You know?
They were all children
of people from ISIS.
That is for sure.
But these children
were non-combatants.
You know?
They were non-combatants.
I have images
of newborn children
by the river.
An inch away of being saved.
You know?
An inch away of being saved.
So, it's...
People come to me and say:
'I wish I could be there',
but it goes against
the narrative, man.
It goes against the narrative.
And going against the narrative is hard.
- DIOGO SCHELP
- JOURNALIST/WRITER
Did you speak
with the French guy?
No, I spoke to a bunch
of people, everyone was...
A newspaper:
'We're out of capacity,
because we're on holiday.
The journalist who could write
about it is on holiday.'
All of that, man.
It goes against the narrative.
It's like: 'Mosul is finished,
everything is over, no problem.'
And now the photographers,
the people I was talking to,
New York Times and so on,
- they see the results and say:
- 'Damn', you know?
Do you think, had they done it,
they'd have published it?
Man, I don't know. I don't know.
Probably, I don't know.
And there was one thing
that was fucked up to me,
that I didn't even know how
to photograph or film that.
I understand.
I didn't know.
I understand.
I didn't know,
I have these pictures,
but I didn't know how to film
or photograph that.
Got it...
I didn't know.
I didn't.
In a sense of not knowing.
But the fact is that,
for me is becoming more
difficult to justify my choices.
And that means the end
of Andr Liohn.
Two days after that,
you left me, dad.
When you lose someone
you deeply love,
I believe you have
to reinvent yourself.
Your identity.
You need to be reborn.
You have to face
all your fragilities
and must fight
your deepest fears,
and try to look for a safe place.
Even if it is for a short time.
But Liohn's children
still have their father.
- Their stories need to continue
- Being told.
He decided to go back
to his teenage shelter,
in his hometown,
in our country, in Brazil.
- To a place where he used to protect
- Himself from the world.
Inside a cave.
But he couldn't find his cave.
It had completely vanished in time.
A passage by the American
writer Paul Auster
sums up this feeling
in a delicate way.
'In the end, I don't believe
you need any special talent
to rise off the ground
and float to the sky.
We all have this gift within us.
Every man, every woman,
every child.
We just need to learn
to stop being who we are.
We need to evaporate,
to allow our muscles to go numb,
to breathe.
Until we feel our souls
leaving our bodies.
And then we close our eyes.
This is how you do it.
The emptiness inside us becomes
lighter than the air around us.
Little by little, we start
weighing less than nothing.
We close our eyes,
open our arms, evaporate.
And then, little by little,
we are in the air.
Like this.
FOR MY FATHER
BETWEEN 2010 AND 2020,
560 JOURNALISTS WERE KILLED
IN CROSSFIRES,
SHOT OR EVEN MURDERED
IN DANGEROUS MISSIONS
ACROSS THE WORLD
- COMMITTEE FOR THE PROTECTION
- OF JOURNALISTS
IN ALL DIRECTIONS
LIKE BELLOWS FULL OF EMPTINESS
BLOWING ASHES THAT REVIVE
Close your eyes.
Now it's my turn
to tell you a story.
You were 50 when I was born.
I was afraid you'd die
at any moment.
That was my biggest fear.
- I've always loved sitting
- Next to you,
holding your hand
and hearing your stories.
How you were eager to fight
in World War II.
- It didn't happen
- As you expected.
- But why did you get
- So frustrated
when peace was declared
- before you joined the Allies
- In the battlefront?
Why weren't you thankful, Dad?
War was over.
- You've never felt the blood,
- The hate,
the smell of death
in the warzone.
I've always believed
this was a gift.
But to you
- it is the interrupted story
- Of a soldier.
I never understood it, Dad.
I've never been in a warzone.
Never met a soldier.
War came to me
in a different way.
Through the work
of a war photographer.
A father, like you.
- He allowed me
- To explore his lenses to tell
the story of an information
combatant of our time.
- But I wanted to go beyond
- The action on the front lines
and dive deep in his anguish.
And I realized his job goes
beyond the factual value.
- There's a deep connection
- Between him
and the ones experiencing
violence and trauma.
And doing so,
Andr Liohn crosses
a disturbing frontier
between life and death.
LIBYA, ARAB SPRING 2011
He's a little kid.
He's from Qaddafi's side...
They'll catch him.
Is he a thief?
No, no, no.
No filming, no filming.
Democracy! Qaddafi no!
Qaddafi no!
We are democracy.
We are democracy.
I swear to God,
no one will kill you.
Go, go, move.
No one will catch you.
- Godspeed! Leave him alone,
- Leave him alone.
Sorry, my friend. Sorry, sorry.
Sorry, sorry, sorry.
Qaddafi, Qaddafi, no, no, no.
Here, yes.
Qaddafi says no!
Qaddafi says no!
Guys, he's filming you!
-No camera!
-Why no camera?
Why no camera?
Qaddafi says no camera.
Qaddafi says no camera.
Qaddafi. Not you.
Qaddafi says no camera.
No minute, I film. I film.
No, no.
Jump in. Drive.
Don't cry. You're a man.
He's afraid. He's shivering
Leave it between him and me!
Give me some space.
Let him pass, people.
Let him pass.
For your parent's sake!
Is this a country?
-I swear, you should be careful.
-Ok man, calm down.
The press is filming you, man!
I swear to God. That's a shame.
They want to kill this kid.
They want to kill him, man.
Hello!
It's your dad!
Raffaella,
do what you have to do.
-Well, choose, then.
-I have to film.
-Hello!
-Hello.
LIBYA, SIRTE 2011
I'm not afraid to say
that I have a mission now.
Everyone has a mission.
It's not a messianic mission.
It's not more important
than any other one.
I have a function
more than a mission.
- That thing you have to get
- On video!
What I did, in my profession,
to try to follow
as well as I could
a tradition of people
trying to find answers
for things that most of the time
have absolutely no answer,
no logical explanation for that.
I decided to do it
through the method
of war photography.
But this tradition
is in transformation
all the time as well.
Now, it's on to photography.
The Robert Capa Gold Medal for
exceptional courage enterprise,
- which is sponsored
- By Time Magazine, ROBERT CAPA GOLD
goes to Andr Liohn.
- The pictures from Almost Dawn
- In Libya
- were taken
- On great personal risk
in the tradition of Robert Capa.
In Liohn's own words:
'We all paid high prices
for those pictures to exist.
And those pictures exist
because real human beings
suffered immeasurably.'
- There's no most important prize
- In the world.
There's no such thing.
Every prize has a criterion,
and those criteria are
not always fair ones.
The people that gave me
the prize
have actually absolutely
nothing to do
with the story of the people
- I've photographed
- To get a prize.
This day, one year ago,
I was sitting in Misrata
in a room, in a little apartment
in a hospital,
talking with Marie Colvin
about...
I had just an experience
that I just died, you know?
We go back to this room
and I tell her:
'Marie,
I'm lucky that I came back.'
Allah is the greatest!
Allah is the greatest!
There is no God but Allah!
It's not that serious.
Don't stand watching it.
Pull him!
And Marie said: 'Man,
there's no other end
for people like us, you know?'
And she was right in her case.
MARIE COLVIN/FRONTLINE REPORTER
1956 - 2012
And that was happening just,
like, two days after
Chris Hondros
and Tim Hetherington died
in Misrata.
And it was very heavy.
I didn't expect Libya to be
as Libya was.
Libya took far longer time,
and far more lives than we
expected it to take.
I want a group to stay here
to inform us
and establish contact
between Haj Nouri and you.
And you tell me 'come',
then I'll come to you.
Do you understand?
Ahmed!
Andr is staying with me
in the car.
- When you go, send someone
- Who knows the way.
Listen!
-Andr, you go to a family?
-Which family?
Family in danger, please.
They'll push them from a house.
Who?
Okay, let's go.
Follow the small side roads.
Important, important, important,
family, family.
Hospital!
It's ok, get in the car!
Allah is great! Allah is great!
There's no God but Allah!
Don't be afraid!
Come in, come in!
It's okay, we came to save you.
I have it, I have it.
Come here, come here.
Hey guys, calm down!
The road ahead is clear.
Allah is the greatest!
Allah is the greatest!
Allah is the greatest!
Allah is the greatest!
There is no God but Allah!
Allah is great! Allah is great!
Allah is great! Allah is great!
No problem, no problem,
no problem, no problem...
Open the car for me!
Close it! Just a little bit,
just a little bit...
Andr, no speak.
Okay.
Here, here!
Very important. Family Qaddafi.
Close the window!
This is very important,
family Qaddafi!
Excuse me, Andr.
At that moment,
for me the sensation,
the feeling of being there
was something almost like,
kind of a religious thing.
I don't know if that was
adrenaline or what was that,
but we were like, extremely,
extremely alive.
I felt... All these years,
it's still crazy.
Because I felt, as I said
there was something amazing
happening.
Don't speak, don't speak.
Go back.
Jump, jump!
I felt like:
'What are we doing?'
We were like...
Fighting for physical space
with these people
who are here to kill or die.
He's there. Can you see him?
Put him down.
After all that,
everything got extremely calm.
And I remember,
like, hearing birds...
Immediately started
asking myself:
'Why are they not killing us?'
This is a bad signal.
Give them space.
- Give them space,
- Give them space.
Give them space.
Breaking news out of Libya.
10 died in Libya yesterday.
War now claimed the lives of two
exceptional photojournalists.
Chris Hondros,
- A still photographer
for the Getty News Agency,
and also acclaimed
photojournalist
Tim Hetherington
The footage also features
award-winning photographers
Tim Hetherington
and Chris Hondros also there
to document the successful
rescue of civilian hostages.
An hour after this scene,
Hetherington and Hondros
were killed by a mortar.
When my daughter was around
five years old, I think,
she asked: 'If you can die,
why do you do this kind of job?
What is the function?'
And then I asked her
if she remembered
the story of
Little Red Riding Hood.
And she said: 'Yes,
of course I do remember.'
I said: 'How do you know
all the story?'
You know the story because
someone wrote the story.
Someone had to write the story.
And someone probably
had to go see
what exactly
was happening there.
This is the work that I do.
I go to places where, sometimes,
people attack children
or attack the grandmothers,
the fathers, the mothers...
If no one goes there
to see what's happening,
we won't be able to tell
the story to other people.
-Where do you want the trap?
-Here.
Let's do it this way...
-Of course, now we are...
-We won't make it.
Of course we'll make it.
-Will you take him to war?
-What?
-The kitten.
-Of course not.
- -Why not?
- -Why should I take him to war?
-So he becomes a soldier.
-Poor thing.
-So he becomes one of the army.
-Poor thing.
-Why does he say 'meow'?
-Come here.
Is he angry?
I'll explain you
how this huge trap works.
-Now it's coming.
-I'm going to get him.
No, leave him there.
He'll notice the thread.
But he doesn't understand
the thread is a trap.
-Why are you there...?
-He's coming!
-Pull it.
-Stay calm...
-Pull it!
-Yes!
We got it!
- -Come and feel the heart.
- -No, no.
-Come here, give me your hand.
-I'm scared.
-Come, you do it with dad.
-I'm afraid of the kitten.
-Feel the heart.
-Why?
Here, here.
-See it's racing?
-Yes.
- -What does it remind you of?
- -What?
- -Your heart.
- -It's not my heart.
- When we used to go deep
- In the sea.
Yes, you made me dive
and my heart beat very fast.
You were afraid
and he's afraid now.
You know, he...
Dad, can you throw him
like this?
Anton, he's a puppy
just like you.
But he's a cat puppy,
and you're a human puppy.
I'm a child...
But how old is he?
You both are puppies.
-How old is he?
-You got it?
I think he's one month old.
But did you understand
that you both are puppies?
Lyah! Lyah!
We've got the kitten!
Do you want to see it?
You see, she escaped.
First she was sleeping.
Stay calm.
When will we meet again?
Who?
The two, the three of us.
Don't go, dad.
I want you to stay.
But how do you wash yourself
when you go to Iraq?
We stay many days
without taking a shower.
I've been almost 15 days
without taking a shower.
It's a habit for you.
We must sleep on the ground.
We have to sleep there.
There are no mattresses?
Not always, but sometimes, yes.
Why not?
When there are not mattresses.
You're not always
in the same place?
No, we change places.
-You live in Erbil?
-Yes.
-Are there mattresses there?
-In Erbil, yes, there are.
-And you sleep in Erbil?
-No, I sleep where there is war.
-Sometimes.
-No, often.
-But usually you sleep in Erbil.
-The house is in Erbil.
But I spend many days in Mosul,
where there is war.
And then there are nights...
Look how she sleeps.
That you can't even sleep.
Why not?
Because it's dangerous,
you have to stay awake.
And what do you do?
I'm there with the soldiers.
I talk to them, I wait.
'How is life, guys?'
We talk about different things.
Look, you're almost
ten years old.
What do you think
about dad's work?
That it's dangerous.
And then?
Two, it's dangerous.
That's all you think
about dad's work?
Yes! That's interesting.
Really?
See how she sleeps.
Come on, what should we do?
I have to leave today...
What can we do with the cat?
Sit down there,
but without crying.
We must not cry.
Please,
see how beautiful she is?
-I know, I know...
-Can't you take her?
In Iraq? No, I can't.
This way,
she becomes a military cat.
If I lived here,
I could keep her, no problem.
Yes, but you would have
to choose another job.
-What job?
-Policeman.
So you could keep the cat
and stay here.
Like Adam.
I can't be a policeman in Italy.
Why not?
You must be Italian
to work as a policeman.
Here we go!
Anton, I want to hold her too.
-Is her heart beating very fast?
-Go kids, go!
I'm walking slowly because
otherwise she gets scared.
-Go on, go on.
-She gets scared.
This is daddy,
and this is Antonello.
- -Are you making a movie?
- -Yes.
-Let me see.
-I'm doing it.
Go ahead.
We see that dad wants death.
Anton!
I was born in a place,
in a time, in a family,
where many things
were there to fear.
It wasn't a very welcoming
environment.
It was dangerous in many ways.
This!
What?
A bomb.
Can I walk with you?
It is very dangerous here, man.
Come, come!
We lived in a very poor house,
not like a shanty town,
but it was very close to that.
There was a factory, a fabric.
And just like,
in front of our house,
there was a landfill
that the factory used
to dispose all the rest
of the material.
And we, kids,
we used to go there
to look for materials
that we could use
to make toys to play with.
Thank you.
When I was 6 years old,
- my parents were getting married
- At the church.
I remember I wanted
to go around the church,
but no one would allow me.
- So they gave me a small camera,
- And they said:
'Ok, cool. Stay quiet.'
But then, with the camera
in my hands, I understood
that I could go anywhere in
the church that I wanted to go.
I could go anywhere.
I could make pictures,
I could, you know,
come close to people.
But from that day
until I was 31,
I never touched a camera again.
But the idea of photography
was always in my mind
from that day.
We've always had
financial problems. Always.
From as long as I can remember.
Yes, but in that time our salary
was equivalent to
one minimum wage and a half.
The job offers in Botucatu
were really bad.
But it was a very good salary.
- I remember Leandro used to drink
- Water with sugar in a bottle.
But you don't know
why he drank it.
Why?
- Because he wanted to nurse
- All the time, he used to say:
'Nurse me!'
I'd tell him: 'The milk
isn't here yet, it's coming.'
- Then he'd ask
- For water with sugar.
- I remember we didn't have
- A fridge as well.
But we bought one later.
Much later.
We had a fridge.
It was humble,
but that's how we were.
The problem was the house,
because it was very bad,
- but that was because your dad
- Is stubborn.
Did you fix it here, dad?
Yes, the sidewalk is here now.
- You've changed everything
- In here.
There was a wardrobe here
in the middle.
This was our bedroom,
this was theirs.
And there was the kitchen.
I remember when I was little
that Dad used to drink.
I wasn't even four yet.
- -But then he stopped.
- -No, he didn't.
He stopped very, very late.
-No, son...
-He drank, he hit you...
Do you know when your dad
stopped drinking?
- -I do.
- -When?
When we went to Dourados.
But then he started doing drugs.
You knew it.
But then he stopped as well.
He stopped after everyone's
lives were destroyed.
Yours isn't destroyed.
Yes, I've built it.
But it was destroyed.
The worst is that I didn't think
that you were bad.
How so?
I think I was blind,
I didn't realize you were...
I didn't know you were bad.
-How so?
-I didn't know, son.
What did you think?
You didn't give me much space
to talk to you.
Did you? You didn't. So.
-You didn't.
-But was it my fault?
- You had to seek contact
- With your son, didn't you?
But more than I did, son?
My God, more contact that
I tried seeking with you?
-You didn't give me space.
-Why?
Because you still don't.
But why do you think?
The men in my family,
they were hard
where a man should be hard.
If you are not hard enough,
you know, like my father,
my father was weak.
They usually call this
the Sleeping Giant.
I spent my entire teenage years
going in there alone
and doing drugs there.
I wanted to do drugs alone,
to drink alone, to be alone,
isolated from the world.
- I would stay there.
- It was haunted, I used to say:
- 'If it is haunted,
- Then I'll go there.
I'll go see.'
- I wanted to see the devil
- In front of me,
- I would go there and say:
- 'Where is the devil?'
Many times I'd be there asking
where is the devil.
Because they told me
the devil was real.
And I was in there asking
where was the devil.
IRAQ, MOSUL, 2016
OFFENSIVE AGAINST ISIS
- -Hey.
- -How are you?
Hey, man.
There.
Wait, wait, wait.
There is a sandstorm
in here right now.
It has covered the sky.
So the planes, the drones can't
know exactly where Daesh is.
And this is the time
when they attack.
We are under heavy Daesh fire.
This is the most advanced spot
inside Mosul.
We are very close to the Mosque
where the Daesh had their base.
Where they still do.
Ziad, come.
Why don't you come?
- -No, no!
- -He doesn't have.
Hello! How are you?
God bless you.
What are you doing?
Very good.
- Cross!
- Cross, cross!
Cross!
Wait
Did I shoot them?
You can't see them.
He shot them.
Move.
No, no, don't shoot!
No, no don't shoot.
He will hit you.
What's wrong with you?
He's in the markets
in front of us.
- Honestly, did you see
- Where he hit you?
That's high.
I told you to move.
It wasn't that high.
Wait!
Did you see the fire, Mustafa?
Look, it's there.
Go! Go!
Photography is not an end.
I don't think I should put
kind of a self-censorship upon
- how much I want to understand
- About the world
through photography.
IRAQ, MOSUL, 2016
OFFENSIVE AGAINST ISIS
Stop, stop!
His phone fell from his pocket.
Why are you standing there?
On the wall.
Let's go?
General, general!
Problems.
No.
Sir.
Hey, hey...
Come!
We're hot, we're hot,
come!
Let's go over there.
Let's go, let's go.
Go over there, go over there.
Go, go, go!
- -Are you alright?
- -I am.
- I don't know how I didn't
- Just die.
Are you alright, man?
Come!
Go, go, go!
Go, go!
Are you okay?
I'm fine, I'm fine.
- Are we going together
- Or separate?
Separate.
Pay attention when you do this,
so you don't trip.
- -Can we go, Andr?
- -Come on, come on!
We need protection!
Joo!
- I was going and that thing
- Blew up,
with that red gas.
I was going and we came back.
-Which red thing blew up?
-Like a flare.
It flew by like fireworks.
No, it was an RPG.
An RPG.
-Did anyone step on it?
-No, they fired RPGs at us.
A man died in front of me.
What killed him?
He was shot.
And the General was almost
shot here, it was close.
He went away, he went away.
BRAZILIAN PHOTOJOURNALISNo, no.
Okay.
Now we're in the car of other
French journalists,
we are going to the front.
This region in the desert
is very volatile,
because you can see
there's no place to hide.
The combat happens many times
in plain areas
with no place to stay,
so they happen a lot
in these little villages
and that go from one
to the other.
People here,
they don't like journalists.
The combatants see journalists
with great suspicion,
because many of them are told
that popular forces...
That they are militias.
And this, in their opinion,
is not the truth.
But anyway, this is a problem
we always have.
Because how can we work
without making propaganda,
but also without
going through many risks
all the time?
Because it is risky.
Or are they advancing
towards the road?
This road takes you to Mosul.
it's all selfies for them.
FRENCH PHOTOJOURNALISThis group here,
they have their own
press channel.
So they are able to expose
what they want to expose
without needing to go through
the journalists' criteria,
the journalists' criticisms.
And this has made our lives,
it became much harder,
because before they needed us,
they needed
professional journalists,
with access to media channels,
so they could prove the world
they're heroes,
and not murderers.
They don't need this anymore,
they have a super
professional camera
that is super easy to use,
a person with a microphone
and they ask the questions
that they want
- and in the situation,
- There is nothing going on here,
so the soldiers
have put themselves
in position just to do
an interview
that sums up reality
to a little square this size
- and doesn't show everything
- That is going on in here.
And then...
And that's it.
They are able to put the reality
exactly how they want it.
Guys, get into the car quickly.
Come on! Quickly!
You guys want to go? Let's go.
ISIS, they want to take
one defense right now.
There are lots of stray bullets
and bombings in here,
- probably mortars falling
- Right now.
We had to make a way
through the desert, because
we were unable to access
the main road,
and we're here
at the main trench,
over there,
about one and a half mile
there are some guys from ISIS.
Watch out, Joo!
Heads up, brother.
-Hold tight, Joo.
-I'm doing it, dammit!
Shit...
Quickly, quickly.
- He's getting off the car,
- He's getting off the car.
Go, quickly, quickly.
Come here, Joo.
Come here.
Come on, come on.
It's okay, come.
It's okay, it's okay.
The cameraman and his friend.
Take this. Wear it.
Joo, stay very low right now.
We are under fire.
Get down, get down!
Where are you going?
- Go before him
- So he sees how it is.
From there, look.
We have to run there.
Ok. Let's go.
Follow me on five! Okay?
When I tell you so!
Protect us.
Alright?
Let's go.
Where are the other guys?
I have no idea.
Shoot in that direction.
Go there.
No, stay over here, please.
No.
-No, it's fine, it's fine.
-No, it's not.
-Come on!
-Your security!
There's a sound of a plane.
Me. I want to take a picture
with you.
They killed two.
Oh, God!
Oh, God!
The one who went there.
Can you tell me who was he?
Let me go there, man.
Over there? No, it's not safe,
you're not a soldier.
You are not.
Your security is my fucking
concern, please, stay over here.
Look, I understand...
- No, you don't understand,
- There are snipers over there,
stay over here.
In the house there, with...
Let's go!
Go down!
Hang on.
Hang in there.
It's fine. It's fine!
Hold on.
Hold on.
Hold on.
Hold on, man.
Wait.
- -I can't take it.
- -What?
I can't take it.
Alright.
God is the greatest!
- Did you see the size
- Of that weapon?
What makes the difference here
are weapons of that caliber.
And then...
Both ISIS and them are attacking
with weapons of that caliber.
So it's hard to know exactly
what is going on,
how close they are, how far.
It is all very high caliber stuff.
Very high.
They injured
Abdul Rahman Al-Sahlab.
The important...
We chose to be here,
so now we need to hang on
until it's done.
That's it.
Did you see the missile?
- Don't shoot!
- They are our group!
Naturally, everyone is nervous.
Everyone is nervous right now.
It ceases after dark,
doesn't it?
No. No.
They go on until it's over.
It's not a job you go back home at six.
We don't even know
how's the road to go back.
Brother, go to the other place.
Now... Okay.
He's asking us to go there.
- He may get shot accidentally.
- It happens sometimes.
Get up!
I swear to God, I'll hit him!
Up! Higher!
It's a trap. It has a bomb.
Be careful.
They're talking about
a car bomb now.
Be careful, there's a car bomb
coming in your direction.
They're talking about
a car bomb!
Be careful!
That's their main weapon here,
the car bomb.
Shoot!
It exploded.
A car bomb exploded!
They blew up a car bomb
just now.
Abu Yakdhan,
where did it explode?
Look at the smoke over there!
Ali!
Ali, this is captain Ahmed!
-We'll go over there?
-No, no.
Let's go there with...
- Ali, this is the captain.
- Captain.
- Beware when you pass
- Near windows.
Shoot in that direction.
These are our people.
- -Andr, let's go into the house!
- -There's fire from here.
I know! They're under here.
Go down, go down.
Come!
- Don't you think
- We are too exposed here?
No, not here.
I'm worried
about the French guys.
I'm not feeling very safe.
- -Here?
- -Yes.
- No, I don't want to do this
- Anymore.
I'm just thinking out loud.
Here's what I always say:
there are a lot of people
who find me or who contact me
- telling that their dream
- Is to come here,
cover the war and such.
And I never pay attention
to these people. I never do.
Because this is not
a dream coming true.
This is something else.
This is journalism.
You're at risk for journalism.
Look at the people here, man.
This is a nightmare for them.
- This, in these people's lives,
- Is a nightmare.
So, I think whoever comes here
thinking they are going
to fulfill a dream,
they're already starting out wrong.
I think coming here has to be
a consequence of something.
But not a dream.
It may even be that the guy
wants to do it out of a dream,
but then I'm not going
to pay attention.
At least I won't.
Maybe someone else does.
So that's it.
And why did you start it then,
doing this?
- I started because
- I had things in my life,
consequences of my life
that led me to do this.
What consequences?
A lot of things in life, man.
That happens in life.
Now it's a little bit disastrous
to talk about it.
It stopped.
People are already nervous.
Come, come!
They are no longer...
They don't want to worry...
Get in the car!
- They don't want to worry about
- The photographers now,
the journalists.
We're not able to work.
Stay there.
We're not able to work.
And some mortars fell down next to us,
and you can't play
around mortars.
This house is...
They know exactly
where this house is.
So it's easy for them
to be able to hit the house.
Did you locate the French?
I'm trying to find them right now.
Okay.
We still don't know
where the French are.
You can see the cars are going
with their lights off.
So they have less risk
of being attacked.
But the problem is that
the French are not with us, man.
The problem now is that
the French are not with us.
And...
I get worried, man.
Now...
Well, there's not much to say.
- You already lost
- A lot of friends, right?
I already lost several friends.
My friendship with Jim...
It got really, like, stronger,
when we worked together
in Sirte, Libya.
And this is a place
where Jim and I
worked together for many,
many days,
in many situations there.
Jim was a kind of a person
that you could have,
you could feel like
you were talking
straight to a brother.
Today,
the entire world is appalled
by the brutal murder
of Jim Foley
by the terrorist group, ISIL.
Jim was a journalist, a son,
a brother and a friend.
James Foley, an American
freelance journalist,
- has been killed by members
- Of the Islamic State...
The murderer of James Foley...
The video showing the execution
- of the American photojournalist,
- James Foley,
- by Islamic State militants
- Is real.
My very dear friend died...
And that was the most
difficult day in my life.
And that was the absolutely
worst moment of my life.
Like, when I heard...
It was the most painful moment
of my life, like...
It wasn't a kind of...
It wasn't supposed to be
a physical pain,
but turned to be even like
a physical pain, you know...
Everything was painful.
Everything in my body.
Everything inside me died.
It was hurting.
Everything was missing.
Everything was missing
in my life.
I didn't have my children.
I wasn't sure when I would
be able to see them again.
That was by itself very,
very painful.
I didn't have a job anymore,
because I had decided
not to go back
to war zones anymore.
- I was completely convinced
- Of that.
I was feeling completely empty.
Depressed, I was just like,
very sad.
And then,
immediately I thought that:
"Man, you have been,
for so long,
trying as hard as you can
to survive...
And now you're just like
trying to kill yourself here."
And then I decided not to fall.
I had to decide not to fall.
LIBYA, SIRTE, 2016
OFFENSIVE AGAINST ISIS
Libya was in the saddest
period of time.
- Libyans were killing Libyans
- Once again.
And, somehow, people were trying
to take their lives as martyrs,
because it's much better.
It's much like...
If you want to die,
it's better to die as a martyr
than to die as a suicidal.
Come back here!
LEBANESE PHOTOJOURNALISI remember observing Qader,
that he was behaving suicidal that day.
God is the greatest!
At the time when he died,
he was happy.
He had just become a father.
He died at the best moment of his life.
We're moving back
to the hospital now,
because my friend Abdul Qader
was shot in the head by a sniper
here in Sirte.
He's dead there now,
in an ambulance.
And I have with him, with me,
his cameras.
And then I understood that I too
was trying to die as a martyr.
Or maybe I wasn't even trying
to die as a martyr or any of that.
I was just not afraid of dying.
Daddy's work,
I think it's the worst.
The ugliest one,
because it's dangerous.
He can die in that job.
They can shoot, kill, stab him.
Dad's job sucks.
It sucks, it really,
really, really sucks!
Why didn't he choose
another one?
Come on, now!
But this is a lousy job.
You can make money,
or get another job, get fired!
Wait, go up there.
Get fired!
You have a shitty job!
It's a shitty job,
it makes me sick,
it makes me puke!
Hey, you can die there!
You can die there, you know?
Do you understand
that you can die there?
And if I die?
-And if I don't die?
-And if you do?
What?
Anton?
Anton, my son...
ITALY, ROME
- SEPTEMBER 7TH, 2017
He just said that
my work is stupid, in Italian.
He said that
" una merda di lavoro".
"Una merda".
He says that my work is a shit.
It is, you know? It is.
I would like to hear
from my son that...
"I know what you're doing,
I respect what you're doing,
I understand
what you're doing...
I know that you're doing
something that
I don't really understand
what it is,
but I respect."
"Your work is shit."
It probably is shit.
You know.
And I'm probably going
to die here with a car accident.
A meaningless ruin.
That, every now and then,
someone comes to visit.
And think that
what this people did
was something great.
What this people did
has some value,
what this people did
sometime had some reason.
Nothing has a reason, you know?
Mosul now, you know?
All these people who died...
Hassan died.
And it's pretty fucked up when you
look at someone in their eyes,
and then you understand
that they will die.
And I can't really look
at my eyes and see:
"Hey, motherfucker.
What are you doing?
You're going to die, man.
You're going to die sometime.
And no one's
going to remember you."
And you know what? Maybe
I do want people to remember me.
Maybe I just don't want
my kids to remember me.
Maybe I want other people
to remember me too.
I don't know, I don't know.
I don't fucking know, man.
Mosul is finished today.
They recaptured all the...
The entire city.
They now... The Iraqi army
control the city.
And "Al-Hurrah" you know?
And I was not there.
Somehow, I feel guilty for that.
Because many of my friends
in the Iraqi army died...
I don't think
that they believed that
Iraq was going to be
a better place just because...
Now they have Mosul back,
and I don't think that people
from Mosul will think the same.
I think my fucking heart
is going to stop anytime.
That I am, as anyone else,
I am a stupid asshole
that can't stay away
from a fucking camera.
Fucking motherfucker.
Strong war photographer.
There is a reason for that.
I see the reason for that.
Fuck...
Fuck...
People make pictures thinking
their pictures are unique...
You see? These people,
- they think that their pictures
- Are unique.
See this guy here?
He thinks his picture is unique.
You see, it's crazy...
Everybody doing pictures
of the Coliseum
with their phones,
like I'm doing it.
Pretending to be unique.
Drinking water...
They create a Coliseum
because of all of us,
motherfuckers wandering...
Over here. That's it.
That's it.
I knew that one day
everybody would have
mobile phones, cameras...
That the image of anything
would have no meaning,
and we all would be
showing ourselves
in front of the Coliseum,
thinking that what you are doing
is something special.
Dad...
I'll never forget
how proud you were
when I decided
to study journalism.
And now, two decades later,
in Brazil and in many parts
of the world,
journalists are facing threats.
Censorship.
Political and economic pressure.
Intimidation.
And with social media,
anyone can publish information.
This also upsets
the ethics of journalism.
All that made deep scars
in Liohn's perspective of his path.
In Iraq,
ISIS was being defeated.
No newspaper,
no media outlet has agreed
to pay for his return to Mosul.
But I wanted to keep documenting
- his routine in the battlefront
- Against ISIS.
At this point, he was a man
trying to find his way
in a fractured reality.
He still decided to go back
to his mission in the warzone.
Andr believed he was late.
- The access to the battlefront
- Had been blocked
by the Iraqi army.
- It was a week after the declaration
- Of taking Mosul back
by the Prime Minister
Haider al-Abadi.
Liohn witnessed
that this declaration was,
in his own words,
a declaration about
anything else
but the truth.
IRAQ, MOSUL JULY 7TH, 2017
OFFENSIVE AGAINST ISIS
Photo?
He is taking pictures!
He's not ISIS, he's not ISIS.
Who is this?
He's a photographer.
Brazil.
Brazilian from Brazil.
- -I want to speak with you.
- -Yes.
- -Do you speak English?
- -Yes.
- -Come here.
- -Okay.
How are you?
Hard, hard.
-How old are you?
-Forty-three.
What are you doing here?
I came with Captain Imad.
And I work with...
Sit down, sit down.
Sit down, my friend.
-What are you doing?
-I'm shooting a video.
No, no. Pictures, pictures.
- What TV channel do you work for?
- What's the name of it?
The name of it...
Where is the picture
you took here?
-Pictures, pictures.
-Brazil.
I know. Why did you
ask him for pictures?
What is he saying, sir?
He's from Brazil,
he's Brazilian.
Brazil.
A little Arabic.
He's speaking Arabic.
A little bit.
We killed him.
-I want to go with you.
-To Brazil?
Go with you. Let's go.
Why? Are you afraid?
God bless you.
Come here.
No, no.
From here.
This is the one.
-Are you afraid from me?
-No, no. Not afraid.
Dead.
They don't want you
to take the picture.
They don't want
to take pictures?
They don't want you
to take the picture.
I'll try to go there
in that region,
because I'm here
with their federal police.
That region is controlled
by the Iraqi Special Forces,
which I don't have
contacts with them.
But I want to get as close as I can
from the frontline
and see if I can document that.
What's wrong?
They're going to put
the last Iraqi flag
in the last place
that was controlled by ISIS.
So they're going to do this now.
Apparently now the war
against Daesh,
here in Mosul, at least,
is now finished, because
they are bombing the very last
point where they were.
The members of Daesh.
I saw it.
The helicopter was
making some recognition flights
here now, you know?
And there's now
this M29 helicopter.
What apparently is
the end of Daesh.
- It's a very strange feeling.
- I don't think,
I don't know if there are
other journalists there.
They have been blocking
the entrance of journalists here
these days, because
the Iraqi Prime Minister...
He declared that Mosul
was free from Islamic State
a week before, a week too early.
And...
And this group here of soldiers
that I'm with,
they're here...
They're here to take
any member of the Islamic State
that tries to escape
through the river here.
They capture the person
and they kill the person.
Here's another one.
Allah!
There is a dead woman.
There's a family.
That died here.
Four children
and the mother.
So many bodies...
It's a very strange feeling
that after all these months
I'm here experiencing that.
Yes.
I don't think there's any other
journalists here.
I understand these people.
It's their country.
Don't stop.
My God. There's so many
bodies here.
I have to walk
in dead people.
I don't want to walk
on these dead people.
It's not right to do that.
You can see how much destruction
this war took. Made.
I don't even know if they can
call it
a victory.
There's so much pain
and destruction
that this war created.
I think I'm not going to stay
for the cake.
Because I have to already leave.
The commander is there.
I'm going home now.
It's enough.
Before they arrest me
and delete all the material that I have.
So many bodies.
I have never seen
anything like that.
And I'm lost.
Man, so many children died...
You know?
They were all children
of people from ISIS.
That is for sure.
But these children
were non-combatants.
You know?
They were non-combatants.
I have images
of newborn children
by the river.
An inch away of being saved.
You know?
An inch away of being saved.
So, it's...
People come to me and say:
'I wish I could be there',
but it goes against
the narrative, man.
It goes against the narrative.
And going against the narrative is hard.
- DIOGO SCHELP
- JOURNALIST/WRITER
Did you speak
with the French guy?
No, I spoke to a bunch
of people, everyone was...
A newspaper:
'We're out of capacity,
because we're on holiday.
The journalist who could write
about it is on holiday.'
All of that, man.
It goes against the narrative.
It's like: 'Mosul is finished,
everything is over, no problem.'
And now the photographers,
the people I was talking to,
New York Times and so on,
- they see the results and say:
- 'Damn', you know?
Do you think, had they done it,
they'd have published it?
Man, I don't know. I don't know.
Probably, I don't know.
And there was one thing
that was fucked up to me,
that I didn't even know how
to photograph or film that.
I understand.
I didn't know.
I understand.
I didn't know,
I have these pictures,
but I didn't know how to film
or photograph that.
Got it...
I didn't know.
I didn't.
In a sense of not knowing.
But the fact is that,
for me is becoming more
difficult to justify my choices.
And that means the end
of Andr Liohn.
Two days after that,
you left me, dad.
When you lose someone
you deeply love,
I believe you have
to reinvent yourself.
Your identity.
You need to be reborn.
You have to face
all your fragilities
and must fight
your deepest fears,
and try to look for a safe place.
Even if it is for a short time.
But Liohn's children
still have their father.
- Their stories need to continue
- Being told.
He decided to go back
to his teenage shelter,
in his hometown,
in our country, in Brazil.
- To a place where he used to protect
- Himself from the world.
Inside a cave.
But he couldn't find his cave.
It had completely vanished in time.
A passage by the American
writer Paul Auster
sums up this feeling
in a delicate way.
'In the end, I don't believe
you need any special talent
to rise off the ground
and float to the sky.
We all have this gift within us.
Every man, every woman,
every child.
We just need to learn
to stop being who we are.
We need to evaporate,
to allow our muscles to go numb,
to breathe.
Until we feel our souls
leaving our bodies.
And then we close our eyes.
This is how you do it.
The emptiness inside us becomes
lighter than the air around us.
Little by little, we start
weighing less than nothing.
We close our eyes,
open our arms, evaporate.
And then, little by little,
we are in the air.
Like this.
FOR MY FATHER
BETWEEN 2010 AND 2020,
560 JOURNALISTS WERE KILLED
IN CROSSFIRES,
SHOT OR EVEN MURDERED
IN DANGEROUS MISSIONS
ACROSS THE WORLD
- COMMITTEE FOR THE PROTECTION
- OF JOURNALISTS