Blur video focuses on cost of war

Blur are continuing to protest against the war in Iraq, using their latest video to highlight its human cost.

Accompanying the single Out Of Time, it’s a fly-on-the-wall documentary, shot with handheld cameras on a US Navy warship on duty in the Gulf. Showing how the escalating tensions affect the armed forces, the video is partly a love story and partly social commentary.

Frontman Damon Albarn has been a vocal anti-war campaigner and has paid for advertisements in magazines to air his views.

Director John Hardwick based his promo on a film made for BBC’s Correspondent series, which was shot last year and explored the lives of men and women serving on a warship.

He then put together the moving story of a young woman, separated from her partner who is serving on another ship and the young son she has had to leave behind at home.

Hardwick said: “The video offers an alternative perspective on the individuals who exist at the hard end of government policy by portraying the armed forces as being staffed by people who have the same needs as all others.

“Like the song, the video is a tender piece of work about distance and loss.”

The track, Blur’s first release for two and a half years, is taken from the band’s forthcoming album Think Tank, and the single