AllMovie

This provocative and realistic German drama follows the exploits of a band of international war correspondents as they try to cover the violence and tumult of a violent urban civil war inside a fictional North African coastal nation. Much of the story centers on one photojournalist's moral dilemma. Jan Loy's predicament came from a photo he took in war-torn Dublin. A picture of an IRA truck driver caught just as he was killed by British gunfire, it won an international award but left Loy feeling responsible for the death, a feeling strengthened by Wilhelm, the journalist with whom he works. Like the rest of the press, Loy and Wilhelm are living in a ramshackle hotel located in an area terrorized by snipers. The U.N. forces try desperately to stop the shootists, but their success has been limited. While Wilhelm attempts to finagle an interview with one of the warlords responsible for the shooting, Loy has a brief affair with a chamber maid until he realizes that the man who has been his personal chauffeur is himself a sniper. It is at that moment that Loy makes a fateful decision about whether or not to get directly involved in the battle.