The Soldier’s Tale is a deeply personal documentary about the Iraq War that takes us places no mere journalistic inquiry could go. Sergeant R. approaches director Allen on a plane headed for the U.S. carrying a laptop full of electronic memories shot by fellow soldiers—the digital “war porn” they capture on smartphones and trade like baseball cards.  After the soldier mails her a CD with all his images, the two meet in a motel somewhere in the U.S. and he narrates the war for Allen—before trudging back to the battlefield.

The Soldier's Tale

Former Portland director Penny Allen’s (PROPERTY, PAYDIRT) new film is the intimate, turbulent portrait of a French-Algerian-Moroccan family residing in Algeria and adrift following the death of their mother, Zineb, a notorious smuggler of gold and jewels. Filmed over the course of three years, the film finds its own space between documentary and fiction as the family’s story brings to life the complexities of cross-border identities, the influence of political context on individual lives, and the importance of the mother figure in Arab/Islamic cultures