Pulled from the Rubble

In August 2003, the American researcher Gil Loescher travels to Baghdad to discuss the humanitarian situation there. During a meeting with the head of the UN in Iraq, the UN building where the meeting is taking place is hit by a bomb. 22 people are killed; the room that Gil Loescher is in is completely destroyed. He is the only man who is pulled from the rubble alive. Sustaining severe injuries to his legs, hand and face, he is taken to a military hospital. His legs are amputated. This horrible event turns the lives of both Gil and his wife and two daughters completely upside down. Daughter Margaret decides to film her father's recovery process, in an attempt to get a grip on the situation. She speaks with her father and records how he gradually recovers and learns to walk with prostheses. She pays a visit to the man who dragged her father from the rubble and talks to a woman who lost her sister in the same bomb attack. In a personal comment, Margaret shares her thoughts and doubts with the spectator and shows how a family copes with a huge trauma and learns to start all over again.