Four Corners: August 5

Next Monday on Four Corners, a film from Minnow Films about the story of war photographer Giles Duley who lost his legs and an arm on assignment in Afghanistan but returned to chronicle that nations plight. Insipring stuff!

In 2011, photographer Giles Duley was embedded with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. His task was to document the war and the suffering of the people there.

Instead he became a victim of the conflict when he stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED). He lost both his legs and part of his left arm. His recovery involved more than thirty operations and a year of rehabilitation, as he learned to walk and look after himself.

Then to the amazement of those closest to him, Giles Duley decided to return to Afghanistan to finish the job he had originally gone to do: to tell the story of the people whose lives had been devastated by a decade of war.

In this extraordinary documentary from Minnow Films we see the story of Giles Duley from the moment he was hit by the IED. Through helmet-cam we see his rescue, his arrival in hospital and we meet the men in the Medevac team who saved his life.

But more than this we meet the people, in the rehabilitation units of hospitals in Afghanistan who, unlike Giles, have not received million dollar care, who live with basic plastic legs and arms to replace the ones they have lost. We also witness the potential impact this type of injury can have on families that are left destitute because the breadwinner can no longer work.

Ultimately the story asks: if the perceived benefit of the war in Afghanistan justifies the human suffering it has delivered?

Monday 5th August at 8.30pm on ABC1.