I saw this doc at a university film festival under its translated title, Winter in Baghdad. There were four dozen other attendees. However, the only other comment posted on this movie--which has been out for 18 months--is from a European who presumably saw it outside the U.S. Among the 17 people who have rated it, only one other has been identified as a U.S. citizen (who could have seen it in Europe). I saw it because an American reviewer whom I respect had listed it as one of his TOP TEN for 2006 after seeing it in a Canadian film festival. I find it odd that the first doc to show some of the results from a project that has cost 600,000+ Iraqi lives, 4,000+ America lives and a minimum of $2 TRILLION U.S. taxpayer dollars (if the thing ended tomorrow, and mandatory clean-up costs are factored in) has NOT generated ONE U.S. comment on IMDb. Furthermore, the print projected at my film festival had something screwy added to the soundtrack: a weird screeching noise that left some of the others visibly wobbling as they left the theater. (The projectionist told me the back-up copy was mysteriously flawed in the same way.) This movie is a straight doc; it does not have the intrusive director like a Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock, nor is it rah-rah fiction like Jarhead,Syriana, or The Kingdom. The more recent No End in Sight was a much safer Iraq doc to make, since most of the footage is of talking heads interviewed in Washington, DC. This one was filmed down in the trenches. It deserves 8 out of 10 for the crew's courage alone.
Review of Invierno en Bagdad
