This is Dan Pal with a two minute review of world cinema.
It's been over four years since the beginning of the war in
Iraq and most of us know very little about the Iraqi people.
The Oscar-nominated documentary, Iraq in Fragments, is
like a crash course discovering a country's reisdents.
Washington State native James Longley spent two years
alone in Iraq shooting and editing the lives of some of these
now divided people.
The film is split into three parts. The first follows an elevenyear old boy named Mohammad in a Sunni neighborhood in
Baghdad. The blue skies contrast with the billowing smoke
of burned buildings. Mohammad shares his own
perspectives on the war and how the country has changed.
"It's not safe here," he says, "I want to go abroad;
somewhere beautiful." He and the adults around him reflect
on the war. One man says, "it's about oil, isn't it?" Another
proclaims the situation in Iraq is worse now than it was under
Sadam Hussein's oppression.
The second section of the film is perhaps the most difficult
yet most educational to watch. Longley takes viewers on an
inside view of Shiate radicals who are seen marching in the
streets, sometimes fighting and beating prisoners. Most of
the men interviewed question the benefit of America's
occupation. "America came as a liberators, but are now
occupiers," one man says. "This is freedom?" proclaims
another. "Who can trust America?" "If Vietnam could defeat
America so can we," says yet another. Longley captures
amazingly intimate footage of these radicals at meetings,
rallies, and prisons.
The start of section three is noticeably more quiet and
serene as Longley visits a Kurdish family in the northern part
of the country. There is a sense of peace here as we
witness children embracing their studies, including the
English language. Some want to be teachers or doctors.
Others tend to farms. We watch them at play, at work,
voting, and celebrating the changes in weather. "There's
been enough war in Iraq," one man proclaims.
This is an important historical document for all of us to see.
It can open our eyes and help us understand the cultural
differences in Iraq. The DVD also features an interview with
the director providing an enlightening account as to his
journey making this film. Iraq in Fragments is currenlty
available at local video stores. I'm Dan Pal with your two
minute review.