Paul Laverty and Ken Loach’s story of a private security contractor in Iraq who rejected the official explanation of his friend’s death and sets out to discover the truth.

Fergus met Frankie on his first day at school and they’ve been in each others’ shadow ever since. As teenagers they skipped school and drank cider on the ferry over the River Mersey, dreaming about travelling the world.

In September 2004, Fergus persuaded Frankie to join his security team in Baghdad: £10,000 a month, tax free; their last chance to ‘load up’ in this increasingly privatised war. Together they risked their lives in a city steeped in violence, terror and greed, and awash with billions of US dollars. Three years later, Frankie is killed on Route Irish, the most dangerous road in the world.

Back in Liverpool, a grief-stricken Fergus rejects the official explanation that Frankie was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and begins his own investigation into his soul mate’s death. Only Rachel, Frankie’s partner, grasps the depth of Fergus’s sorrow, and the lethal possibilities of his fury as he struggles to find his old self and the happiness he shared with Frankie twenty years earlier on the Mersey.

"A very dark and muscular revenge thriller… intricately plotted."
The Independent

"Channels Loach’s righteous anger at the grotesque carnival of the Iraq war."
Time Out

Features the full screenplay, character backstory, production notes and photographs from the film, plus background essays:

'Aftermath' by Mark Townsend
'Private Security Contractors in Iraq' by Haifa Zangana
'Justice for Iraq' by Mike Phipps