An Iraqi Boy in the Middle of a War in 'The Blood of My Brother

From the unembedded camera of the filmmaker Andrew Berends comes "The Blood of My Brother," another documentary about the occupation of Iraq, another heartbreak, another pile of corpses, another protest, another eye-opener, another rebuke, another agony, another necessity. Yes, another — and have you had enough?

Lately, movie commentators have wondered whether audiences aren't tired of the material, as if reports from Iraq were just another genre, like Adam Sandler flicks or men-in-tights extravaganzas. The only question worth asking is what it will take to render this cinema obsolete.

"The Blood of My Brother" is unusual in that its story is told from the Iraqi point of view, in particular that of one Baghdad family in 2004. When Ra'ad, the proprietor of a small photography shop, is killed by American forces while guarding a mosque, his younger brother, Ibrahim, is torn between his duty to support the family and his fury for revenge.

The film is most revealing when it sticks to this conflict, allowing Ibrahim's struggle to resonate as an abbreviated version of a larger Iraqi narrative. Though Mr. Berends strays too often, he does so down some compelling paths. His material is intimate and hair-raising, granting us rare access to scenes inside mosques, at a Shiite militia rally and in homes under fire.