Halabja: a Kurdish town in north east Iraq which became renowned when Saddam carried out a chemical gas attack on the town in 1988.
Halabja: Aras Abed Kareem beside the grave of his mother, father, 3 brothers and 7 sisters, he recounts the terrible events of the 16th March 1988 when his family were wiped out in the gas attack on Halabja.
Halabja: Ayub Nuri is the main character for the Kurdish angle of our film. Since the fall of Saddam's regime he worked as a freelance translator / fixer for the New York Times and the BBC and he has the ambition to become a correspondent himself. We pick up Ayub as he visits his family in his hometown of Halabja. He tells them of his work in Baghdad. His family have never been to Baghdad.
Halabja: Sheikh Ali Abdel Aziz is leader of the Islamic Movement in Kurdistan, the precursor to the infamous Ansar el-Islam, a pro-Qaeda group until recently based in the mountains over Halabja. He believes the best solution for Iraq is the return of the monarchy.
Suleimaniyah: the main town for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of Jalal Talabani.
Suleimaniyah: Ayub sits with friends discussing politics in a Suleimaniyah tea-house. They see the fall of Saddam's regime as an opportunity for better and more skilled people to emerge independently of the two main Kurdish political parties.
Suleimaniyah: Fairadoon Abdul Kader the PUK Minister of Interior tells how he succeeded in imposing security amid mayhem in Kurdish cities immediately after the fall of Saddam.
Suleimaniyah: Dr. Barham Salah the PUK Prime Minister explains the Kurds' total support for the US/UK coalition and spoke of the need to reverse Saddam Hussein's Arabisation of Kirkuk and Mosul.
Suleimaniyah: Kaywan Azad Anwar, an independent Kurdish historian, sees the fall of Saddam's regime as the first step for the ultimate demise of the PUK and KDP and the creation of an independent Iraqi Kurdistan.
Erbil: the main town for the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) of Massoud Barzani.
Erbil: Hoshyar Zebari, the KDP Chief of International Relations and Iraq's new Foreign Minister, suggests using the Kurdish experience of self-government and security to support the US-backed governing council of Iraq.
Kirkuk: Kurds throng the streets of Kirkuk celebrating the news of the capture of Chemical Ali.
Kirkuk: Ayub files a reports to a Canadian radio station on the capture of Chemical Ali.
Kirkuk: Ayub meets Kawa Sherabayani, who takes him to the now-destroyed Baath Party prison in Kirkuk where he was held for 4 months. In 1996 Kawa and 3 of his brothers escaped to London. At the time I documented their story for the BBC - see Karzan's Brothers
Kirkuk Prison: Kawa Sherabayani shows Ayub the cramped cells in which he was detained and describes the torture.