Reinhard Krause, the German head of the Reuters Israeli photo bureau, is up against a deadline but must make a difficult ethical choice. He is looking at a photo of a female suicide bomber’s head, still perfectly in tact lying on the ground, severed cleanly from her body without any visible blood or blemishes. Should Reinhard show this to the world or keep it hidden? “Every picture must tell a story,” he says, and this particular photo tells many. But is the world ready for this kind of image? He needs to decide within minutes. Welcome to the everyday difficulties of covering a story unrelenting in its antagonism and bloodshed.

This film joins Reinhard during the last few weeks of his 4 year placement in Israel and unveils the people and the pressures of a news agency producing the photos we see in papers around the world. Reinhard single-handedly revolutionised how photos are taken and editorialized in Israel and is now managing a highly efficient team of both Palestinians and Israelis, many of whom still have never met, as a result of the tight restriction of movement. Reinhard represents the link between those on either side of the conflict.

Reinhard’s team covers horrifying atrocities on almost a daily basis, and each individual copes differently with the occupational stress. Gil, an Israeli photographer, breaks down on camera after covering an heart-wrenching funeral. He says that sometimes he feels like an animal chasing after the shots. Ahmed, a Palestinian nearly killed on the job, considers it his duty to show the world the stark realities of the situation in Gaza. He lives and breathes his job. Nir, a talented young photographer in Tel Aviv, has learned to compartmentalize his day job and his leisure time, actively blocking off those parts of his job that are too difficult to dwell upon. Abed, a resident in the chaotic West Bank town of Nablus, has become a spokesman for local journalists despite having suffered through 90 days of curfew. Despite the costs, no man would dream of giving up his profession.

This film goes behind the scenes of the world’s oldest news agency to discover how the news we received every day is captured and reported – from the first ambulance text of an accident in Jerusalem through to the front page of the papers the next morning. With unprecedented access, Shooting Under Fire delivers the whole process – the digital technology that allows for instantaneous communication and information sharing, the difficult moral dilemmas posed by sensitive images and news stories, and the danger and unpredictability of a society at war.