Originally published in The Atlantic
In 2007, Ahmed Al Kubaisi was walking past the American base in Fallujah, Iraq, when he was allegedly shot by an American sniper. Al Kubaisi, then 15 years old, was paralyzed from the waist down. This short film by Luisa Conlon, Hanna Miller, and Lacy Jane Roberts chronicles how Al Kubaisi left his family behind and was resettled in the Bay Area in 2013 by the UN Refugee Agency. Predictably, he has complicated feelings to navigate about America—having suffered greatly during the U.S. invasion of Iraq, but also finding treatment and making friends upon moving.
This short film includes an original score by musician Nicholas Littlemore, of the band Empire of the Sun.