The hard hitting documentary The Ground Truth: After The Killing Ends which was nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize this year, has just been bought by Focus Features. Hopefully this means the film will get a larger release.

The documentary looks at what happens to US soldiers during their Marine training, while they are at war, and when they come back home. According to the official site:

This film overrides familiar images of heroic soldiers in battle, and overjoyed returning faces, reunited with their families with one effortless stroke. Instead, we see a scenario that can include illness, amputation and injury, depression and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), of which Iraq has become a fertile breeding ground...

The film gives us glimpses into a Marine Corps boot camp that allows us to comprehend how a man or woman can kill as part of their job. We get hit with more understanding of our soldiers' dehumanization by seeing Iraq combat footage that shows routine indiscriminate killing. Their jobs over, the confusion, guilt and shame that comes home with these "killers" is the tip of the iceberg. Left with few resources and families that cannot understand what they have seen or done, their anguish only intensifies.

It sounds a harrowing but worthwhile film to watch. I've seen a few documentaries from Iraq, both Gunner Palace and Voices of Iraq have shown opposite sides of Iraq, but this film sounds like it goes even deeper and looks at what is happening to the people rather than the soldiers they have become.

You can see some clips over at the official site [QT], this is definitely going on my must see list.