This is quite a moving film in some ways. It is not brilliant and it starts with quite a kick but flails slightly about half-ways on. Surprising in a good way, because you might expect it to be a montage of grim depressing shots (of which there are quite a few), but it is not a dwelling, sombre movie. The rap soundtrack is quite good at parts, a bit bad at others. The MTV-style montage sometimes hurts the core of the film, which centers around the "brigadiers", or people from various collectives that went to Baghdad a month or so before the war started to see the state of the capital first-hand; they give some good testimonies and you have to admire them, even if you disagree with some of the things they say.
What I liked about the film was that it focused on the personal and individual qualities of some of the Iraqi people, far removed from politics of any kind (foreign or local), although I found some of their points hard to stomach. What does come through, however, is the sheer humanity of the people, and a particularly poignant part is recorded on the eve of the war, when people just went about their business as usual, knowing that their city was about to be bombed, but staying the course because...well, because they are resigned, because they are used to it or...because they simply believe in what they do and they do not intend to be changed by external intervention. Anyway, it paints an admirable picture of the people: the day-to-day people, who try to work, eat, live, like anyone else on the planet. Whilst it is not a fantastic film, I would recommend it for anyone who likes to look a bit deeper into the situation of a country, it serves to put a face to the real suffering and it is the perfect antidote to the sanitised, infra-red computer game-like flashes that most mainstream media throw out, claiming that those blips on the screen are "surgical" warfare manoeuvres. Not the happiest of viewing, but ultimately, surprisingly hopeful.
What I liked about the film was that it focused on the personal and individual qualities of some of the Iraqi people, far removed from politics of any kind (foreign or local), although I found some of their points hard to stomach. What does come through, however, is the sheer humanity of the people, and a particularly poignant part is recorded on the eve of the war, when people just went about their business as usual, knowing that their city was about to be bombed, but staying the course because...well, because they are resigned, because they are used to it or...because they simply believe in what they do and they do not intend to be changed by external intervention. Anyway, it paints an admirable picture of the people: the day-to-day people, who try to work, eat, live, like anyone else on the planet. Whilst it is not a fantastic film, I would recommend it for anyone who likes to look a bit deeper into the situation of a country, it serves to put a face to the real suffering and it is the perfect antidote to the sanitised, infra-red computer game-like flashes that most mainstream media throw out, claiming that those blips on the screen are "surgical" warfare manoeuvres. Not the happiest of viewing, but ultimately, surprisingly hopeful.
