The True Story Behind Iraq War Reconciliation Drama Atonement

In April 2003, a family in Baghdad was driving home as U.S. Marines engaged in a firefight with Iraqi forces. The family was caught in the crossfire, and three men were killed. Nearly 10 years after the shattering incident, the two women who survived the attack, having immigrated to the U.S. and settled in Glendale, Calif., sat down with one of the Marines who opened fire on them.Journalist Dexter Filkins told the story of this encounter in the 2012 New Yorker article “Atonement After Iraq.” The piece details the efforts of U.S. Marine Lu Lobello to speak to Margaret and her daughter Nora Kachadoorian and seek their forgiveness for the attack that killed Margaret’s husband James and their sons Nicolas and Edmund and left Nora with a wound to the shoulder. Lobello reached out to Filkins to help facilitate the meeting. Lobello’s time with the Kachadoorians informs the climax of Atonement, written and directed by Reed Van Dyk and now in theaters. Their real names have been changed for the film: Filkins becomes Michael Reid (Kenneth Branagh), Margaret is Mariam Khachaturian (Hiam Abbass), and Lobello is Lou D’Alessandro (Boyd Holbrook).“I cried through most of the article,” recalls Van...