Iraq takes many and varied forms at the Sundance film festival.

It is the Abu Ghraib prison, described by a guard in the documentary "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" as a "cross between 'Apocalypse Now' and 'The Shining.'" It is John Cusack struggling to tell his daughters that her mother died there, in the feature "Grace is Gone."

It is also, somewhat oddly, the 1968 Democratic convention. That explosive moment in history — when protesters, primarily of the Vietnam war, marched against an overwhelming and heavily armed array of police on the streets of Chicago — is recounted and dramatized in "Chicago 10," the festival's opening film.

After the screening, director Brett Morgen told the audience that he conceived his unconventional film, which includes cartoon re-enactments of the ensuing trial, after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.

"Seventy percent of Americans right now are against the war in Iraq," he said, receiving a smattering of applause at Park City's largest venue, the Eccles Theater. "We could applaud. But what are we doing?"

"I wanted to make the film serve as a catalyst" for protest, Morgen told the crowd. A contemporary soundtrack, including the Beastie Boys' "Sabatoge" and various Rage Against the Machine songs, was key to his effort to connect the history lesson with young audiences, he said.

The most explicit link to the present day is a scene in which found archival footage of the protests are overlaid with Eminem's "Mosh," with harsh lyrics aimed at President Bush. That moment, like the movie as a whole, is a bit too much: a nice exercise in theoretical filmmaking but lacking an overall emotional punch.

More restrained and far more conventional is Rory Kennedy's "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib," which features the expected talking-head interviews with military police officers who were assigned to guard the infamous Iraq prison, along with haunting views inside and analysis from the usual suspects.

Most striking, though, is the bland, academic defense of U.S. policy by John Yoo, who authored memos narrowly defining torture while working in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel.

Kennedy certainly doesn't agree with him, but refreshingly, she doesn't vilify him. Yoo is given room to defend his arguments even as we hear from those who were on the ground about the confusion and misdeeds they may have helped to create.

Iraq is also central to the film "Grace is Gone," which was screening for the first time Saturday. Cusack plays Stanley Phillips, who takes his daughters on a road trip while he prepares to tell them that his wife Grace has been killed in the Iraq war.

The festival staff, which selected James Strouse's movie for its select dramatic competition, wrote that it "can be construed as promilitary" and is "sure to be exalted as the freshest and best antiwar movie of this troubled time."

Finally, one of those ubiquitous foreign policy talking heads turns to the movie to express his thoughts on the war. Charles Ferguson, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, weighs in with "No End in Sight." Ferguson compiles in his first film perspectives from military personnel, journalists and high-level government officials.

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asap staff reporter Ryan Pearson is reporting from Park City during the Sundance festival.

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