Desert Crossings

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PLOT OUTLINE

The story takes place in the aftermath of the Allied (US) occupation of Iraq and the discovery of the theft of the Iraq National Museum. The Jordan Times, English language newspaper, in its 23 June 2008 issue, wrote the following:

“It was a moment of renewed hope for Iraq’s antiquity officials when 2466 valuable artifacts, feared lost forever, were returned to them Sunday (by the Jordanian Security apparatus). Iraqi Antiquity officials and experts have described the assault on Iraq’s National Museum as having the indications of a well- executed theft rather than random pickings of mobs.”

The above statement contradicted the established US and world media reports of the time that the Museum was assaulted by “Iraqi mobs and residents” and the thefts were a haphazard attack by people stealing whatever they could lay their hands on. In fact the museum had been already emptied when opened by the Allied forces. Our story is one version of what might have happened to recover some of these valuable artifacts.

 

SYNOPSIS

An American surveillance team notices the movements of unauthorized trucks and starts an operation to discover their destination. Unknown to this team is the fact that some higher echelons of the American Army of occupation are themselves involved in the clandestine smuggling of Iraqi treasures and they sabotage the surveillance team's progress putting their lives in danger. The American team is chased across the Jordanian border by Iraqi gangs cooperating with the corrupt American generals and eventually seek help from the Jordanian security departments and police.

 

Unknown to the smugglers or the Americans is the fact that the European Union anti-smuggling department (Interpol) had sent a female agent (lead role) to infiltrate the gangs and to discover the leaders and their contacts in Europe. She succeeds at being captured by the smugglers and is then recruited by the leader of the gang (lead male role) to work for them as a carrier of smuggled treasures to Europe.

The relationships become complicated with romance and loyalties vacillating, ending in action packed chases and adventures in Jordan and Europe. In the end we discover that the Jordanian gang leader was himself an agent of the Jordanian security and the two lovers unite at destroying the smuggling operations but not before some hair-raising near fatal encounters. INVESTING IN DESERT CROSSINGS

 

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The first media coverage of our pre-production of the film in Jordan