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Communication across Borders: Translation & Interpreting; Vol. 05 No. 01 (2025) 
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A Comparative Critique of the Controversial Trauma Narratives in Hollywood and 
Local Films about the Iraq War 

 

Huiming CAI1 Kaiju CHEN2 

1. Faculty of English Language and Culture, Institute of Hermeneutics, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, E-mail: 
2206789662@qq.com 
2. Institute of Hermeneutics, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, E-mail: 200010931@oamail.gdufs.edu.cn 

 

 

Abstract 

Films about the Iraq War created by Hollywood and Middle Eastern filmmakers present notably different trauma narratives. 
While Hollywood productions tend to highlight the war s impact on soldiers, local films present civilian s collective suffering. 
This divergence raises the contentious question of whose suffering deserves greater recognition. Using the Hollywood film 
American Sniper and the local film Turtles Can Fly as case studies, this paper addresses this debate by applying Edward 
Said s Orientalism and Michael Walzer s theory of just war. It examines how these films construct opposing trauma narratives 
and the motivations behind them, ultimately advocating for higher attention to the anti-colonial perspectives expressed in 
local films. 

Key Words: Iraq War films; Hollywood; local films; trauma narratives 

1. Introduction 

The Iraq War remains one of the most politically and morally divisive conflicts of the 21st century due to its unclear 
justifications and devastating consequences. Prior to the war, the United States claimed that Iraq possessed weapons of mass 
destruction, and had connections to Al-Qaeda, who was deemed as the perpetrator of the 9/11 incident. So the Iraq War was 
defined by the U.S. as a preemptive war  (Smith, 2007). However, months after the war s outbreak, there was still no 
evidence to sustain these claims, calling into question the legitimacy of the U.S. military intervention. This fueled global anti-
American sentiment and sparked worldwide anti-war protests in 2003. 

Philosophers such as Michael Walzer criticized the war for violating the principles of  (justice of war). The 
conflict resulted in over 200,000 civilian deaths (according to the Iraq Body Count Project) and long-term destabilization that 
fueled sectarian violence and the rise of ISIS. As America s excuse for invasion happened to be a scandal, t

 Hollywood, with its global reach, serves as an important tool for the U.S. to rescue its international image. Binns (2016) 

-  

As Serdouk (2021) observes, film shapes reality and strongly influences emotions, focusing more on formal elements than on 
real-world images. Thus, films can more effectively shape audience perceptions than actual events. 
often glorifies military heroism to support its narrative, while local films highlight civilian suffering showing stories of 
orphaned children, destroyed infrastructure, and bodily harm. This contrast reveals a clash of ethical frameworks: duty-bound 
patriotism versus human rights. Although local films may not always originate from Iraq, together they offer a narrative 

However, as Arab cinema remains largely absent from North American screens and film 
criticism  (Turan, 2019), consequently a large audience tend to be swayed by the narrative of Hollywood while neglecting 
the trauma of civilians. 

Obviously, both Hollywood and local films aim to present themselves as the primary victims of the war, creating a 
contradiction between the individual suffering of American soldiers and the collective suffering of local civilians. The 

Hollywood and local films construct conflicting trauma narratives about the Iraq War, and what distinct motivations underlie 
th  It employs Edward Said s Orientalism and Michael Walzer s theory of just war. Said (1999) argues that 
the West often depicts Arabs as either mysterious terrorists or helpless victims, perpetuating colonial discourses of 
civilization versus barbarism . The local context serves as a contrast to the Western moral framework. Walzer(2008) defines 

just war by evaluating three phases of war: before war (justifications such as self-defense or self-preservation ), during war 



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( proportionality  in war: maximizing the profits and minimizing harm), and after war (post-war responsibilities to prevent 
ongoing animosity).  

Using American 
Sniper (2014) just w Turtles Can Fly (2004), 
and finally critiques the contradiction between imperial discourse and anti-colonial resistance underlying these conflicting 
trauma narratives. American Sniper, directed by Clint Eastwood, is a classic Hollywood war film that achieved major box 
office success and won multiple awards, focusing on the heroism and psychological trauma of the U.S. sniper Chris Kyle. 
Turtles Can Fly, an Iraq-Iranian co-production by Bahman Ghobadi, gained international recognition at the Berlin 
International Film Festival. It focuses on the suffering of a group of Kurdish kids under war, encouraging 
impact on innocent groups. By centering local voices, this study challenges Western dominance in war narratives and 
advocates for a decolonial discourse in war representation.  

2. Hollywood s Trauma Narrative--The Soldier s Dilemma 

Hollywood s films about the Iraq War, through artistic choices and narrative framing, emphasize aspects that are favorable to 
American soldiers while obscuring those that are less flattering. They reshape the narrative surrounding the Iraq War, focusing 
on American soldiers  heroic actions, physical harm and psychological struggles. In this way, they transform the war into a 
platform that emphasizes the responsibility and morality of American soldiers. 

2.1 Individual Psychological Struggles 

Hollywood s depiction of the Iraq War consistently follows a highly stylized logic that reduces the war to moral dilemmas 
confronting individual American soldiers. This approach centers on the protagonist s inner struggles and psychological trauma, 
transforming systemic violence into personal heroism and avoiding direct scrutiny of the legitimacy of the war. Emmanuel 
Levinas argues that a true ethical relation requires the recognition of the non-assimilability of the Other , rather than reducing 
it to a projection of the self  (Jiang, 2025). In Hollywood films, this relation is completely dissolved. Iraqi civilians, 
combatants, and the battlefield in the films exist only as backdrops to the protagonist s moral choices, lacking independent 
voices.  

Clint Eastwood s American Sniper is a quintessential example of this paradigm. Based on the memoir of the legendary U.S. 
sniper Chris Kyle, the film employs a highly selective narrative that transforms an unjust war of aggression into a personal 
heroic epic. Kyle s central dilemma in the film is framed as the moral paradox of killing for his country and to protect his 
comrades.  His PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) is not rooted in skepticism about the war itself, but rather in the guilt 
of not being able to save more comrades.  This narrative portrays U.S. soldiers as dual victims physically harmed and 
morally tormented. 

The film first showcases Kyle s patriotism. He is proud of being a member of marines because he thinks America is the 
greatest country in the world. This means that Kyle fully supports his country and is proud that he can sacrifice his life for it. 
Therefore, when he is on the battlefield, Kyle does not consider what he is doing to be an act of aggression, but rather as a 
way of serving his country. What he needs to do is trying his best to eliminate any potential dangers for his comrades even 
if that means killing civilians. This frames Kyle s violence as an inevitable act of patriotism. 

A controversial visual device in the film is the repeated sniper-scope perspective. When Kyle s cross-hairs lock onto an Iraqi 
child holding a rocket launcher, or a woman carrying a grenade, the camera compels the audience to adopt the shooter s gaze. 
This reduces the complex ethics of war to a binary choice: Shoot and become a murderer, or remain passive and allow your 
comrades to be killed.  This technologized moral dilemma makes Kyle passive; in turn, it highlights the kindness and 
righteousness of Kyle. But it obscures more fundamental questions: Why are American soldiers in Iraq? Why do Iraqi children 
pick up weapons? And who creates these extreme situations where killing is a necessity ? According to Michael Walzer, 
there are two legitimate reasons to engage in war: self-defense and self-preservation. Certainly, Hollywood is not able to 
answer these questions. From the very beginning, the film avoids providing these basic background explanations. Instead, it 
portrays all the American soldiers as being in a passive state, saying, Any male of military age who is still here... is here to 
kill you , in order to pave the way for their military operations. Then by abstracting their violence into a matter of inevitable 
choice, Hollywood effectively diverts attention from the structural guilt associated with American military hegemony.  

More notably, the film depicts Kyle as a victim of the war by focusing on his PTSD. After his retirement, Kyle suffers from 
long-term PTSD. Then the narrative ultimately reverts to the conservative theme of a good soldier alienated by war.  He 
struggles to reintegrate into normal life, reacting with stress whenever he hears sounds resembling gunfire, and erupting in 
rage to protect his loved ones when they are threatened. These behaviors indicate that years of war have shaped him into a 
war machine. Moreover, he often feels guilty over his fallen comrades. Kyle can only seek inner peace by assisting disabled 



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veterans. His death shot by a fellow veteran also suffering from PTSD is imbued with a sense of martyrdom. At the film s 
conclusion, thousands of people line the streets to bid farewell to Kyle s body, mourning him as a national hero. Whereas his 
death is portrayed as a national tragedy, the casualties among Iraqis are completely neglected in this final narrative. Clearly, 
the film never allows Iraqis to speak for themselves; their presence serves only to validate the suffering of American soldiers. 

Represented by American Sniper, most Hollywood films about the Iraq War share a common trauma narrative. First, they 
replace political discourse with emotional appeal by fostering a strong sense of empathy between the audience and the 
protagonists. Second, they personalize responsibility by breaking down the violence of war into numerous individual choices 
of last resort, thereby dissolving national guilt into personal tragedies. Third, they complete the narrative loop by depicting 
soldiers as post-war victims, showing how they ultimately fail to reintegrate into normal life. This structure ultimately 
reinforces  

Phelan (2011) reveals . When the audience is 
sacrifice true voices 

that are silenced are those of the Iraqi civilians who exist outside the Hollywood lens, as the voices of the subjugated are 
 (Chen, 2018). 

2.2 Dehumanization and Erasure of Local Suffering 

In order to emphasize the righteousness of American soldiers, Hollywood films often undergo artistic selection and processing. 
These films typically focus on scenes depicting the U.S. military confronting dangers, being compelled to fight back, and 
making sacrifices. Meanwhile, they tend to overlook the suffering endured by local civilians or resistance forces, and 
frequently employ dehumanizing rhetoric to portray the local population in a negative light. 

While American Sniper glorifies Kyle as an American hero, it systematically dehumanizes Iraqis and erases the suffering of 
local civilians caught in the conflict. The narrative frames the war through an exclusively American lens, reducing Iraqis to 
either faceless enemies or passive victims, thereby reinforcing orientalist stereotypes and justifying U.S. military actions. One 
of the most striking aspects of American Sniper is its depiction of Iraqis without any backgrounds or depth. The film s 
antagonists, such as the sniper Mustafa and the brutal Butcher , are portrayed as one-dimensional villains devoid of humanity. 
Mustafa is an Olympic marksman who turned insurgent. But he is given no backstory or motivation beyond his role as Kyle  
s rival. In the film, Mustafa s killing of American soldiers is consistently depicted as evil and abominable, while Kyle s killing 
of Iraqi militants is depicted as gratifying and admirable. So actually, his presence serves only to validate Kyle s skill and 
moral superiority, reinforcing the binary of American heroism versus Iraqi barbarism. 

Moreover, the film frequently employs visual and narrative techniques that strip Iraqis of their individuality. As the film says, 
there s evil everywhere . The film s portrayal of all the Iraqi images reinforces this statement. Crowds of Iraqi civilians are 

often shown in chaotic and blurred masses, while insurgents are depicted as barbarians who only charge forward and then die. 
Even women and children are portrayed as threats that cannot be ignored. Additionally, most of the enemies are portrayed 
wearing turbans and covering their faces, rendering them devoid of identity, not to mention personality. As the enemies are 
depicted as emotionless war machines lacking any individuality, their deaths become insignificant. Thus, when these enemies 
emerge one after another and are killed by the U.S. military, the scenes vanish 
right away after being hit and then another group show up. This video game-like portrayal, without any focus on the deceased 
Iraqi, effectively diminishes the horrors of war, dissolving the violence of the U.S. military.  

Even in scenes where Iraqi civilians are present, their suffering is secondary to Kyle s personal struggles. For instance, when 
Kyle hesitates before shooting a child who might be carrying a grenade, the tension revolves around his moral dilemma rather 
than the child s humanity. The film never explores the broader consequences of such actions on Iraqi families, effectively 
erasing their pain. And Iraqi militants  death will never be focused in the film. They are shot and fall, only to be quickly 
replaced by another wave of enemies. In starkly contrast, when American soldiers are shot, the camera centers on their pain 
and the sadness of their teammates. And there are many instances where US soldiers think of their families when on the verge 
of death. Apparently, this narrative leaves the audience no time to empathize with the Iraqis as they quickly show up and then 
disappear, but it intentionally infused the audience s compassion into the trauma faced by U.S. soldiers.  

To conclude, by dehumanizing Iraqis and erasing their suffering, American Sniper discourages audiences from questioning 
the true costs of war. It achieves this by demonizing the Iraqi people as a whole or depriving them of individuality, thereby 
downplaying the violence of the US military. The absence of Iraqi voices and the victimization of American soldiers 
perpetuate a narrative that prioritizes American trauma over Iraqis suffering.   

3. Local Cinema s Counter Narrative: Civilian Survival as Resistance 



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portrayal of the Iraq War emphasizes the physical suffering and psychological struggles faced by 
American soldiers, local films focus on the collective trauma experienced by civilians during the conflict, exposing their dire 
living conditions. Local films here are not limited to those made by Iraqi directors, but also by directors from neighbor 
countries such as Iran, Turkey and Lebanon, etc, since they belong to a Islamic community. Besides, whereas Hollywood 
movies often structure their timelines local films underscore the long-term consequences of the 
war to tell that the damage caused by war is eternal. This fundamentally challenges promote the 

better its intention to create a just 
image. 

3.1 Collective Suffering Over Individual Heroism 

Turtles Can Fly is filmed by Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi. In an interview, he stated, two weeks after the war had started, 
I went to Iraq with a DV camera. I visited the Iran-Iraq border, which is the location seen in the film...I found children in dire 
circumstances all over Kurdistan, they were easy to find  (Hamid& Ghobadi, 2005). But why, as an Iranian director, Ghobadi 
was willing to present the suffering of Iraqi children to the world? Hamid (2006) offers insight into Iranian cinema beyond its 
border, stating, although we often think of Iran as being completely closed to the rest of the world, its filmmakers have begun 
to show an increasingly broad outlook. This regionalist cinema is fueled by the seemingly contradictory impulses of promoting 
a humanist critique of the prejudices and abuses of Islamic fundamentalism and the feeling of religious and cultural solidarity . 
In other words, when Ghobadi made this film, he did not limit himself to the identity of an Iranian; instead, he positioned 
himself as a member of the Islamic community, speaking on behalf of the entire Islamic group. Therefore, the definition of a 
local film about the Iraq War is not confined to the Iraqi region, as the suffering endured by the Iraqi people is part of a 
collective trauma experienced by the Islamic community. 

The main part of Turtles Can Fly takes place in a refugee camp just days before America s invasion into Iraq. It centers on a 
Kurdish refugee community situated along the border between Iran and Iraq, who were all victims of Saddam regime s 
atrocities. One of the main characters, Satellite,  is a boy around thirteen years old who harbors an American Dream, yet he 
is the leader of a group of orphans because he organizes them to work, including digging up landmines and loading dismantled 
shells. Some of these children are disabled as a result of the domestic conflict and their landmine-digging activities. For these 
kids, their living is depending on these dangerous activities that can take away their lives at any moment. Another protagonist, 
Agrin, is only twelve years old but possesses the maturity and sorrow of an adult. This is because of her traumatic past of 
having been sexually assaulted by Saddam soldiers, which led to her giving birth to a blind child at such a young age. She 
attempts to abandon the child but is continuously prevented by her brother. Ultimately, overwhelmed by her shattered life, 
she drowns the child in a river and then commits suicide by jumping off a cliff. Her brother, Hengov, is also a tragic figure. 
He lost both of his hands due to the domestic turmoil and must use his mouth to dig landmines for a living. The director grants 
him the ability to foresee impending disasters. Yet tragically, he is powerless to prevent them from happening, including the 
death of his nephew and his sister. These three characters are forced to assume adult responsibilities, taking care of the children 
and seeking ways to survive themselves. This incredible reality is as absurd as the name of the movie Turtles Can Fly . 

As the US claimed to bring Iraqi freedom and peace on the broadcast, these kids once expected the arrival of U.S. military. 
However, their fate did not improve after the outbreak of the Iraq War. The arrival of U.S. troops at the end of the film marked 
merely the beginning of further turbulence for these children, suggesting the continuity of their suffering. The US declaration 
of liberating the Iraqi people  turned out to be an illusion. This continuity  indicates that even with a change of regime, 
civilians remain the primary victims of power struggle. In this desperate ending, Agrin and the blind infant died; Hengov 
weeps in despair because he lost all his family members and becomes alone; Satellite s American dream is shattered and 
his leg is blown off by a landmine; children with families seek refuge elsewhere, while orphans continue to wander and 
struggle to survive amid the continuing war. Throughout the entire film, there is no appearance of a savior to these kids, 
imbued with a profound sense of depression and despair.  

Ghobadi chose children as the subject to illustrate the cruelty of war, which actually alludes to the even more profound 
suffering of adults under war. As he said, I think that the adults are far more damaged than the children. They are thinking 
about how to put food on the table. They are extremely poor; they have families to take care of and no means to take care of 
them. They can think only about surviving from day to day. They ve had a lifetime of dealing with a harsh reality and they 
have no hope. They treat the kids that way because they have reached a point in their lives where nothing else matters but 
survival  (Hamid&Ghobadi, 2005). So by depicting children who must assume adult responsibilities to survive and the adults  
indifference towards them, the film conveys to the audience the even greater helplessness and despair experienced by the 
adults. When they struggle to ensure the survival of their own families and themselves, it is impossible for them to pay 



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attention to these displaced children who are engaged in dangerous work. Thus, this is the collective suffering of an entire 
community. 

Through the representation of the collective suffering of ordinary people, Ghobadi expressed that Turtles Can Fly offers an 
opportunity for Western viewers to see what is left behind by foreign wars and the impact they have on ordinary people  
(Hamid&Ghobadi, 2005). But the collective suffering of civilians is precisely what is often concealed in Hollywood s 
portrayal of the Iraq War. By obscuring civilian suffering, the narrative of American Sniper can focus solely on the battlefield, 
thereby demonizing all Iraqis and framing  suffering, 
the violence of the US military can be downplayed. In this disguised manner, American soldiers are portrayed as the primary 
victims of the war. So local films  focus on collective suffering directly deconstruct this illusion. It directly tells the audience 
how widespread and severe the suffering of civilians was behind the Hollywood war narratives. 

3.2 Long-Term Consequences vs. Hollywood s Mission-Based Timeline 

Why can you enjoy the Alps in Europe, but not the beautiful hills here? It is because this place has been used as a pawn by 
the superpowers for their advantage. They have taken out all the resources and left destruction, fields of landmines, artillery 
shells, and discarded weapons. This is how they have left these people to live,  stated by Ghobadi angrily in the interview 
(Hamid&Ghobadi, 2005). Yes, the mines buried everywhere are just like the impact of war on local civilians, which persists 
even after the war was over. When Hollywood movies use the missions of American soldiers as the timeline and ends with 
their return to the United States to reunite with their families, they create a closed loop of depicting heroism. This misleads 
the audience into believing that the war is over with a happy ending, while completely forgetting about the local civilians who 
have been profoundly and enduringly harmed by the war.  

American Sniper follows a linear, goal-oriented structure: Chris Kyle enlists, completes missions, faces moral dilemmas, and 
returns home. The war is framed as a series of missions, such as ing ping 
the complex conflict into a soldier s execution time. And the films end with Kyle returning home to accommodate the normal 
life, as if the war were over and everything were going toward better. But it completely ignores the continuous instability and 
suffering caused by the US invasion. This structure reinforces the myth that war is a finite endeavor with a clear resolution, 
rather than a prolonged catastrophe for those who live through it. It actually evades the discussion on post-war responsibilities, 
without which animosity and indignation will persist according to Michael Walzer. 

Set in a Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraq-Turkey border just before the 2003 U.S. invasion, Turtles Can Fly depicts war not 
as a series of missions but as an endless cycle of sufferings. The main characters of the film are children who scavenge for 
landmines to sell for livings  Unlike American Sniper, there is 

 for those children only its perpetual existence. Although there is not scene of fighting in the film, 
every element inside implies the long term consequence of war. First, the war left behind a large number of orphans. In Turtles 
Can Fly, the children all need to support themselves after losing their parents. Children around ten years old have to take on 
adult responsibilities, while adults show indifference towards the children s lives. This was a sign of disruption of the Iraqi 
social structure. Second, the landmines and bombs left over from the war still pose a constant threat to everyone s life, just 
like the bullets that were flying around during the war. The war forces these children to survive by picking up landmines, but 
ironically, these landmines that sustain their livelihoods can also take away parts of their bodies or even their lives at any 
moment. Third, the trauma left by the war in children can never be erased. The film repeatedly focuses on Agrin s gloomy 
expression and the child she is carrying. It is a repeated mention of her tragic experience during the war. This experience has 
been haunting her like a demon, tormenting her soul, without any solution to cure it. It eventually drives her to death. The 
film also repeatedly focuses on Satellite s lame assistant. He lost a leg in the war and has to walk with a stick. However, he 
seems very optimistic and often makes funny gestures with his amputated leg to amuse people. But his optimism does not 
make the audience think of his strength; instead, it keeps reminding the brutal war that has devastated a child s entire life. 
Last, the film ends with the invasion of the US military. The U.S. forces, who were once the saviors the children had expected, 
now become another invading force in reality. This implies the continuation of the war and the continuation of hopelessness. 
For these children, war always exists; they have no memory of peace. The fairy tale in Hollywood that war could have a happy 
ending is an illusion in local films. 

4. The Root of the Narrative Conflict: Imperial Narrative and Anti-Colonial Resistance 

The comparison above clearly shows that Hollywood s trauma narrative, which positions soldiers as the main victims, 
conflicts with the collective suffering depicted in local films. What, then, contributes to this conflict? 

The trauma narrative in Hollywood war films is not accidental; it is deeply embedded in the imperial discourse of the United 
States. The United States has consistently global sheriff 



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soldiers actually obscures the aggressive acts of the U.S. in this role. Films such as American Sniper serve a core function in 
constructing the emphasizing the sacrifices and struggles of individual soldiers, these films recast the 
U.S. military intervention as a moral necessity to combat evil, rather than an extension of political and economic interests. In 
doing so, they obscure discussions about the purposes of war, which are supposed to be considered when determining whether 
a war is just or not according to Michael Walzer. This narrative strategy is highly isomorphic with the logic of American 
Exceptionalism, namely the United States was chosen by God and serves as the guiding light of the world. In terms of 
morality, the United States is superior to other countries and was selected by God to play the role of promoting world progress  
(Li, 2022). 

The American soldiers depicted in these films are often endowed with complex human characteristics, while the enemies are 
. This binary encoding resonates with Orientalist discourse, which constructs the Middle 

East as a barbaric space in need of Western military discipline. According to Said (1999), the West has long believed that the 
East is not yet ready (or simply lacks the capability) to manage itself, and only under the guidance and assistance of the West 
can the East be governed. It actually exemplifies the white savior  ideology of the West (Yang, 2014). Through this ideology, 
the West has carried out conquest and governance over the East under the guise of saving the East  (Xu, 2020). Thus 
Hollywood portrays the United States  presence in Iraq as a just act because America is cast as the savior. However, in Turtles 
Can Fly, the United States appears as a new invading force, inflicting further suffering on civilians rather than providing 
salvation. This directly undermines the savior narrative prevalent in Hollywood films.  

With technological rationality, Hollywood further sanitizes violence. Through the precise targeting of a sniper scope, 
Hollywood presents warfare as a technical and specialized activity, thereby obscuring the brutal nature of violence itself. 
Baudrillard (2003), in The Gulf War Did Not Take Place, pointed out that the media-driven narrative of war turns killing into 

, with cinema acting as a visual accomplice in this process. Furthermore, by focusing on the 
psychological trauma of soldiers, when audiences lament the PTSD of soldiers, their emotions are channeled towards a macro 
perspective bruta ,  

 (direct, visible violence) and  (structural violence embedded in capitalism, ideology, 
etc.) (Ding, 2020). He points out that people often focus on emotional outrage over subjective violence while ignoring the 
more hidden systemic violence. This kind of emotional consumption becomes an ethical trap, making people mistake 
sympathy for actions. Hence, the conflict between the narrative of individual trauma and that of collective trauma exposes the 
elements often obscured by Hollywood films, deconstructing the false logic of justice portrayed in Hollywood movies.  

In addition, the U.S. Department of Defense has long intervened in the production of war films by providing military 
equipment, advisory support, and other means in exchange for the promotion of a positive image of the U.S. military (such as 
series of Transformers). A report of 2022 revealed that the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency had exercised script-
editing control over more than 2,500 film and television productions, based on documents from the U.S. Department of 
Defense. The control includes the removal of topics that are deemed disgraceful or controversial such as war crimes, torture, 
veteran suicides, etc (Matthew & Tom, 2017). Films that refuse such military intervention may not even get the chance to be 
released. Consequently, the relationship between Hollywood and the U.S. government appears to be close. This collusive 

s narratives towards an imperial perspective. 

In contrast, local films like Turtles Can Fly present starkly different war scenes. Through survival narratives from a civilian 
perspective, these films reveal the central contradiction: whose suffering is more worthy of being noticed? 

Hollywood favors the depiction of individual physical and psychological trauma while neglecting the broader impact on local 
civilians. This creates the illusion that the substantive harm of war is borne by the U.S. military. On the contrary, local films 
present the structural trauma of the entire society. Ghobadi employs the innocent perspective of children to expose the 
pervasive alienation of everyday life caused by war, as these innocent children are forced to take on adult responsibilities, 
with mine clearance serving as their only means of survival. While Hollywood 
local films lament that it poses more threats to local civilians, directly pointing to the fundamental contradiction of imperialism: 
violence carried out  

However, under the dominance of global cultural hegemony, local films cannot escape the intervention of cultural hegemony 
if they manage to gain dissemination. Since 

 
Consequently, local narratives often can only achieve limited dissemination through European film festivals, resulting in a 

--challenging Western hegemony while being compelled to conform to the Western portrayal 
yet it represents the most significant 

form of resistance that those affected can muster



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answer cannot be dictated by cultural hegemony; rather, it should center on the collective trauma of civilians that most 
accurately reflects the brutality of war. 

He asserts that t
 an 

 (Jiang, 2025). Therefore, when audiences confront the 
characters on screen, they are inevitably moved by this ethical call, fostering 

ements, effectively 
blocking the ethical appeal of civilians. In contrast, local films place the desperate expressions of children and adults in direct 
confrontation with the audience. This approach successfully positions viewers at the center of the ethical call, appealing to 
pay more attention to the collective trauma that local civilians suffer. 

5. Conclusion 

The conflict of trauma narratives between Hollywood and local films lies in the clash between the individual trauma of soldiers 
and the collective trauma of civilians. Hollywood tends to emphasize the personal struggles of American soldiers, portraying 
the reluctant violence of the U.S. military while avoiding discussions about the underlying purposes of war and post-war 
responsibilities. This approach ultimately seeks to justify the imperialist rationale behind military operations in Iraq. In 
contrast, local films reconstruct the ethical dimensions of war by focusing on the collective trauma of civilians. By 
highlighting the long-term suffering and permanent disabilities of civilians as symbols of resistance, these films deconstruct 

trauma narratives and appeal for the attentions on collective trauma that is attempted to be obscured.  

References 

 
 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 



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