As boys in Iraq, brothers Joseph and Henry were both in love with the same girl. When Henry realizes the girl cares only for Joseph, he forces her to eat a cake filled with nails, which results in her death. Joseph is charged with murder, a murder he didn't commit, and is sent to jail. On his release, the brothers' relationship morphs into a mysterious shadow play of shifting identities, a game that degenerates into violence when war breaks out. After the revolt against Saddam Hussein, Henry disappears and Joseph adopts his name in order to clear his own, only to find out that his brother is wanted for murder again -- which means that Joseph, too, is wanted for murder again. A sharply written fairytale rich in political allegory, Joseph's Picture shows how war turns everything -- victim and oppressor, truth and lies, reality and nightmare -- inside out.