In early April 2006, Private First Class Angel "Sally" Salazar (Izzy Diaz), a young United States Army soldier serving in the Iraq War, is an aspiring filmmaker who enlisted in the U.S. Army to help him get into film school, as he "did not get into University of Southern California". Salazar, based out of Camp "The Oven" Carolina, near Samarra, is using his camcorder to record an amateur documentary, ''Tell Me No Lies'', about his deployment in Samarra, to present to a film school of his choice as part of his future enrollment there as a student. Meanwhile, a France documentary crew is shooting a documentary called ''Barrage'' while they are embedded with Salazar's platoon.