The Deminer (15)
Directed by Hogir Hirori and Shinwar Kamai

KATHRYN BIGELOW'S The Hurt Locker about the work of US bomb disposal experts in Iraq pales by comparison with this extraordinary story of real-life “deminer” Colonel Fakhir, who disarmed thousands of mines with just a simple knife and a pair of clippers.

Hogir Hirori and Shinwar Kamai's powerful, heart-stopping documentary paints a singular picture of this heroic Kurdish father of eight. A local legend in Duhok, he put his life on the line every day to save innocent lives in Iraq.

Using Fakhir's own videos, it shows him at work defusing mines and booby-trapped houses in Mosul, interwoven with interviews with his family. A sense of the fearlessness and bravery of this man, who received many medals from the US army for his incredible work, shines through.

As he poignantly points out in a recording made in September 2014: “If I fail only I die but if I succeed I can save many lives.”

Even when he was seriously injured in an explosion in which he lost his right leg and was told he could no longer do his job as he was now handicapped, he refused to be beaten.

Putting on a simple plastic prosthetic leg he joined the army again, this time as a volunteer, and went back to disarming mines with his clippers regardless of his own safety.

It's an agonising watch as, with bated breath, you pray his next job won't be his last. Witnessing his own son seeing the footage and voicing his thoughts for the cameras is heartbreaking and makes for very uncomfortable viewing. The film-makers pull no punches in terms of what they show.

Colonel Fakhir is an example of a real-life hero and humanitarian, if ever there was one, and he was determined to save as many innocent lives as possible, even if it cost him his own.

Sadly, it did.