An award winning film about U.S. soldiers confronting their unexpected and wrenching feelings about shooting Iraqis and testimony from an Iraqi man whose 2 year old son’s hearing was destroyed by American bombs brought 1000 Berkeley High School Students to rapt attention on Tuesday afternoon.

Soldiers of Conscience, winner of several Best Documentary awards in 2007 and 2008, made with help from the U.S. Army, is about military training, the inculcation of reflexive shoot-to-kill instincts and the psychological effect it has. It juxtaposes men who accept their roles and that they will be called on to kill others, with men who on the battle field came to the realization that they could not kill, their refusal and decisions to become conscientious objectors. It is a gripping movie and for a young audience, any of whom may already be confronting choices to join the armed forces or to walk away, it had special resonance.

On the panel that followed the movie was a special guest, Ghazwan, a professor of Media Studies at Baghdad University and father to Mustafa Ghazwan, who lost his hearing in a U.S. bombing raid in Baquba in June of 2007. Through a translator Ghazwan spoke unhesitatingly of the pain of witnessing his child’s injuries and the endless effort to get medical attention.

Mustafa himself, with a new cochlear implant, made possible by hundreds of Bay Area donations, sat in his father’s lap and occasionally brightened the moment with his newly developing vocalisms. He was the chief center of interest as students approached the panelists at the end of the session.

Teachers present commented that the students were more than usually engrossed during the entire film, their more typical restlessness and readiness to split out the door as soon as possible, transformed both by the young soldiers of the film, and the responses from the panel. Lively questions and answers from film makers Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimberg, Producer Stan Friedman, Ghazwan, Pratap Chatterjee, Investigative Journalist, and Tanya Sleiman, film maker and translator, showed the importance of the subject to these kids. They wanted to understand how what they had seen and heard confirmed or contradicted what they already knew, or thought they knew.

The depth of feeling engendered by Mustafa’s presence on his father’s lap and his war related story was palpable in the dead quiet and compassionate expressions of this audience of high schoolers.

One student asked Ghazwan what his feelings were about the Americans in Iraq. He replied through his translator.

“What can I say? ….If you were in my place and your son was injured and there were no opportunity for help…they told me to be quiet, he is deaf, teach him sign language. He was screaming and crying, pounding his head on the ground because of the pressure in his head. There were 3 children in the street that day, they were all killed, and women who have lost their children have lost their sanity…so I answer by asking you what would your opinion be?”

Another student, quoting a soldier in the film asked if we all had a duty to serve our country. Catherine Ryan, one of the film makers, answered that “the nation has a duty to tell the truth, and not promise money and college as a reward for going to war. The effort for recruitment has been stepped up to a goal of 20 million. This creates a confusion about what your duty is and why you might go.” Her co-panelist Pratap Chatterjee added that it was important to remember, that the injury and trauma did not just happen in the war itself, but continued in the lives of returning soldiers. Enormous numbers are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. The suicide rates of Iraqi vets has skyrocketed.

Ghazwan added that everyone understands and wants to support one’s country but that the consequences of the war had completely upended society. “Before, women looked to military men for status. They had certain status. But now, no more. Iraqis are out of jobs and dignity. Men often don’t leave their homes. 26 million are in psychological need of assistance.”

A Marin county group of citizens called Ruth Group was instrumental both in helping move Soldiers of Conscience from a Festival-only movie into commercial distribution, and in bringing Ghazwan and Mustafa, in cooperation with No More Victims, an organization which has brought ten war-injured children to the U.S. from Iraq for medical help. Members of the group originally saw the film at the Mill Valley Film Festival in 2007 and approached Gary and Catherine to ask how they could help. The meeting with the high schoolers was exactly the kind of work all of them had in mind.