From KCRW in Santa Monica, this is The Treatment.

Welcome to The Treatment. I'm Elvis Mitchell. My guest, documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy

has an extraordinary new film about the atrocities at Apple Grave running on HBO this month.

The film is Ghost of Abelgrave. Rory, thanks for being here.

Thank you for having me.

Talk about the way the word haunted is used in the film, if you would.

Well, it's one of our characters who had spent a good amount of time at Abu Ghraib, talks about how the place there was really haunted.

The descriptions of what it was like to be at Abu Ghraib coming from the soldiers and the people who were there was as close to hell as I've ever heard. And one of the characters who we spoke to, one of the

interviews had talked about how the hallways were really haunted and spoke of the history of

Abu Ghraib being really spearheaded by Saddam Hussein and 30,000 people were allegedly

executed there. They still had the death chambers. There were remains of human bodies,

dogs, skeletons. The smell was unforgettable for many. It was really abject horror.

And such a great title, too, because it really does describe what the movie and what that place is all about.

You must have felt those spirits in that place when you were there, didn't you?

Well, I think it certainly is a haunted environment,

but it's not only about how Abougrave itself is a haunted place,

but how we continue as Americans, particularly to be haunted by what happened there.

We really haven't addressed the underlying issues that allowed the abuses to take place.

And until we address them more directly, we're going to continue as a nation to be haunted by the remains of that.

Well, one of the things the film is about, and I could say we could just use this to describe

many of your films, American Hollow or Indian Point or even epidemic Africa.

It's about responsibility, isn't it?

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