Documentary
Brandpunt+

Specialist Operations features in the documentary by Brandpunt+ (‘Focal Point’). It is a well-known weekly Dutch journalism television program that brings background news stories and investigative reports diving deeper into news stories and current events. The program ‘Building on a mass grave’ shows the initial reconstruction of the Iraqi city of Mosul, one year after its liberation from ISIL. It states: “According to the United Nations, the battle of Mosul is the largest urban battle since the liberation of the Russian Stalingrad during the Second World War.

The city has been totally destroyed and turned into one large mass grave strewn with explosives. More than 440,000 people live in camps around the city. Now that ISIL is gone and the cleanup has begun, the question arises: how do you rebuild this age-old city with dignity? How does Mosul get his soul back? The UN is now putting these almost impossible questions to the Dutch architect Jan Willem Petersen of Specialist Operations. Together with a team of specialists, he makes a master plan to build a future-proof Mosul”.

The documentary (in Dutch) can be seen here: https://www.npostart.nl/brandpunt/06-12-2018/KN_1702770