Film Clip Passed Off As Soldier Bidding Farewell To His Family During Battle

A dramatic clip from an Iraqi short film where a soldier is seen recording himself bidding farewell to mother and family as gunfire rages on in the background is being shared with the false claim that it is from a real incident.

In the viral clip, the man in army uniform can be seen recording a video of himself speaking in Arabic, asking his brother to take care of his mother as he feels he might not be able to make it back home alive.

The clip is being shared with the caption, "soldier says goodbye to family during war"

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Viral on Facebook

On searching with the same caption on Facebook, we found that the clip was being shared with the misleading caption.

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FACT-CHECK

BOOM found that the viral clip is from an Iraqi short film Dialing and is not from a real incident as being falsely claimed.

Taking a cue from users in the comments to the viral video pointing that it is from a movie, we found the short film uploaded by a YouTube user in 2017. In the 17 minutes clip at the beginning, we can spot the same part as in the viral clip where the soldier can be seen recording himself bidding farewell to his family.

The YouTube user states that the film name is Dialing and was directed by Bahaa Al-Kazemi and the plot of the movie revolves around an Iraqi woman who is traumatised by the loss of her son who dies while fighting against ISIS for the Iraqi army.

The description of the video when translated from Arabic reads, "The movie "Dialing" tells the story of an Iraqi woman who is traumatized by the loss of her son who is fighting with the Iraqi army and the Popular Mobilization Forces against the terrorist organization ISIS. She refuses to accept the idea of ​​her son's martyrdom despite the factual and material evidence that proves it!! You try in various ways to contact him via a mobile phone that you do not know how to use!? The film is produced by: Imam Al-Kadhim Center for Culture and Arts, Executive Producer: Ain Al-Basra Center for Cinema & Basra University...."

We also found that the film had premiered at the Dubai International Film Festival in 2015, and the trailer was uploaded on its official YouTube channel.

We also found that the lead actor - Menhel Abbas who plays the solider in the movie had uploaded a collage of shots from the movie while shooting in March 2016 on Instagram and had also uploaded the viral shot from the movie asking people to watch his film in June 2019.

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