A country in pieces (Iraq In Fragments (DVD))

Member Name: LadyAudley

Product:	Iraq In Fragments (DVD)
Date:	30/01/08 (126 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Insightful, beautifully shot

Disadvantages: None

Iraq in Fragments

James Longley's documentary, Iraq in Fragments is the best depiction of events in this turbulent country over the last few years that I have seen. It's a very quiet movie, lacking the vitriol rhetorical verve of many of the Iraq documentaries that have emerged from the radical left over the past few years, its perspective closer to that of a social historian than a polemicist. Longley tries to understand events within the country from the perspective of its people, rather than passing judgement on the invading forces. His film's strength is that is shows the viewers the dynamics of history at work before their eyes, by charting the ideas and ideologies of the Iraqi people regarding the future of their country.

The film is made up of three parts, all filmed in 2003-2004 after the fall of Saddam. In the first, we see a young, working class Sunni boy, Mohammed Haithem, living in the Sheik Omar district of Baghdad. In his haunting voiceover, Mohammed tells how his father disappeared under Saddam's regime, with the result that this eleven year old is working to support the extended family who are raising him. He mechanically expresses his gratitude for this help, reassuring the viewer in a monotone that he's not beaten or ill-treated. However, it's soon obvious that one of his male relations is a brutal emotionally bully, who constantly mocks the fact that his young charge cannot read or write, repeatedly reducing him to tears. Mohammed lives a miserable life, caught between adult responsibility and the needs of childhood, confused in a class of much younger pupils at school, bullied at work in the autoshop, but relieved by brief bursts of joy playing football and riding his bike.

The camerawork is extraordinarily transparent, allowing us to see the world of post-war Baghdad from Mohammed's childhood perspective. This is a vibrant, bustling city, full of noisy, dusty streets, exotic streetsellers, jostling pedestrians and the rubble ruins of buildings bombed during the war: "It was so beautiful before" says the young boy, wistfully. Adults gather in cafes to rant against the invading forces who have reduced their familiar landmarks to rubble, and express their nostalgia for the fallen regime. Here, we hear first hand the class and religious tensions unleashed by the war, though Mohammed, representative of the future of the country, listens in innocent bemusement.

The second segment of the film is the most extraordinary, footage-wise. It follows a middle class cleric, Sheik Aws, in Naserijah, showing the rise of Shiite power in the region. Young, charismatic and deeply religious, Sheik Aws follows Moqtada Sadr, a powerful, Shiite leader who strongly opposes both America and Israel, instead advocating the 'speaking Hawza', i.e. combining religious and political authorities. The level of access achieved by the filmmakers is remarkable. Not only do we see Sheik Aws and his followers at rallies and religious observances, but we follow a gang of masked men, armed with rifles, as they take direct action in response to Aw's preaching, seizing and beating a number of people accused of selling alcohol at the market before dragging them into a van and taking them to an undisclosed location in the city. We watch tensions mount between the Shiites and coalition forces, until the inevitable explosion - the battle of Kufa, an armed insurgency caught on camera, with the ratatat of automatic machine gun fire ringing out as the Shiites attack the coalition forces for closing down their headquarters and banning newspapers that criticized the occupation.

Ten minutes of this kind of footage, obtained by a team working in incredibly dangerous conditions, whose members were receiving death threats, gives you more insight than a hundred news documentaries into the state of Iraq and the high-running feeling of some groups there. The material is presented in an even-handed way, showing progressive elements amongst the Shiites (a meeting on the preservation of human rights is covered), as well as brutal and violent street gangs, and trying to understand the subjects and allow them to speak, rather than imposing meaning upon them.

The final section of the film follows two Kurdish boys, living on a farm with a brickfield in the beautiful, remote north of the country. It's here that the director's talent for breathtaking digital cinematography comes to the fore, with Malick-like vistas of cornfields, hills and sheep. Life here moves at a more sedate pace than in urban Baghdad, and feelings are much quieter. However, it soon becomes clear that people welcome the coalition-led invasion as a new beginning, a possible platform for Kurdish independence, fragmenting the country still further. But as one Kurdish boy notes, with the precocious insight of a child: "Iraq is not something you can cut into three pieces... Iraq is a country."

Put together, these three stories chart fissures in Iraqi society during a critical period of the occupation. What James Longley's movie makes devastatingly clear is the fact that there is no easy way to unite the Kurds, who want independence, the Sunni Arabs, many of whom have excluded themselves from the political process by boycotting elections, and the increasingly powerful and militant religious Shiites in the south. After watching the film, it's difficult to see how "Iraq" can survive the US-led invasion intact. How can these three groups with their very different interests, attitudes and beliefs, possibly coexist harmoniously? We are left with an impression of a rich and diverse country, fissured by simmering tensions that could explode at any time. This is extraordinary, insightful documentary filmmaking by a director who has the ability to see into the heart of things, opening new vistas on the multiplicity that is post-war Iraq for the western viewer. Highly recommended.

Summary: Watch it!