Standard Operating Procedure

By Robbie Collin

EVER get back from a trip abroad, look through your photos and wonder, “Oh no, what on earth did I take that one for?”

Not half as much as those dimwit US soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison did, I’ll bet.

This sobering documentary examines the atrocities carried out at the infamous Iraq jail, plus the hunt to unearth the culprits, in chilling and sometimes stomach- churning detail.

Director Errol Morris interviews all the “bad apples” responsible for the photos who aren’t still in chokey —and their recollections, delivered straight into camera as if down the barrel of a gun, make for uncomfortable viewing in the extreme.

The glossy production and re- constructions help make sense of the complex sequence of events.

Not an easy film to watch—and a million miles from your typical summer movie fodder. But as documentaries go, they don’t come much more powerful than this.