On 4 September 2009, two tank trucks were hijacked by the Taliban. The tank trucks were stuck on a river sandbank and surrounded by a large crowd of people from the nearby villages, including many women and children helping themselves to free petrol.
Assuming a gathering of hostile armed forces posing an imminent danger to his soldiers, German Colonel Klein from the field camp in Kunduz/Afghanistan – who was following events with the aid of aerial photos – commanded hesitant US pilots to carry out an air raid. As a result of this order, an estimated 140 people died. Based on unpublished documents, the film reveals the background and consequences of this operation – the biggest carried out by the German troops in Afghanistan so far.

 

Written by Raymond Ley, Hannah Ley Directed by Raymond Ley Director of photography Philipp Kirsamer Assistant camera Dirk Heuer, Resa Asarschahab Edited by Heike Parplies Cast Matthias Brandt, Axel Milberg, Franz Dinda, Stephan Schad, Matthias Koeberlin, Vladimir Burlakov, Ludwig Trepte, Yung Ngo, Navid Akhavan, Jürgen Uter, Stephan Grossmann u.v.a Assistant camera Uli Krause : Chris Tromboukis Sound Martin Müller, Gregor Voigt Continuity Candy Maldonado Agustin Set design Harald Turzer, Jurek Kuttner Costume design Bruni Hannemann Make-up artist Jens Bartram, Bothilla Bergschmidt Requisite Marinus Haas, Harald Voss Casting Heta Mantscheff Location Manager Moritz Widmann, Jan Enderlein Research Kristin Siebert : Jörg Hafkemeyer, Marc Lindemann, Timo Schicke Composer Hans P. Ströer Production manager Beatrice Hallenbarter, Claudia Haselhorst, Viola von Liebig (NDR) Editorial Manager Christian Granderath (NDR), Sabine Holtgreve, Andreas Schreitmüller (Arte) Executive producer Ulrich Lenze Locations Marokko, div. Deutschland Shooting period 2011/2012 Produced for NDR/Arte Air date 08/30/2013, Arte and 09/04/2013, ARD » back