La situation

Topicality and immediacy are the primary attributes of "The Situation," an otherwise uneven drama based on the real life experiences of an Anglo-American journalist stationed in war-torn Iraq (the film was actually shot in Morocco).

With her own eyewitness observations serving as her primary source of inspiration, first-time screenwriter Wendell Steavenson has crafted a tale of intrigue and romance, played out amidst the bloodshed and chaos that have wracked that nation since the war began in March 2003. The journalist (named Anna Molyneux in the movie) travels around the countryside chronicling the numerous atrocities that have arisen as a result of the tensions that exist among the nation's various warring sects and parties as well as between the Iraqis and the American forces stationed on their soil. There are any number of shocking, heartbreaking moments scattered throughout the film, moments that illustrate with brilliant clarity the brutal facts of existence in a war-torn setting.

As a movie, however, "The Situation" often comes across as amateurish and awkward, with many of the actors seemingly not quite up to the challenge of inhabiting the roles they've been assigned to play (although, in all fairness, director Phillip Haas should shoulder a significant amount of the blame for this weakness). The plotting is frequently stuffed to bursting, with far too many situations and characters vying for attention at any given moment and with romantic subplots gumming up the works unnecessarily. It's one thing to capture the messiness and confusion of a wartime situation for dramatic and thematic effect; it's quite another to confuse the audience through sheer incompetent storytelling.

Yet, paradoxically, the scruffy, dog-eared quality of the movie actually enhances the verisimilitude of the piece in a way that a slicker, more polished presentation might not have done. For despite the melodramatic approach the filmmakers sometimes take towards the material, the movie doesn't really feel like a "Hollywood" production, and that may well be the best thing "The Situation" has going for it in the long run.

This movie is good. And I mean really well done. If you are looking for a movie without too much political agenda, then this is the one. It takes you right on the ground, on the streets and in the houses of Iraq. It showcases the torment and mistrust that has grown in the hearts of people there. It has the look and feel of an indie, at the same time it is very well made. The acting is very good, at all the levels. The movie needs a careful viewing. It is NOT an action movie. It is a well spun out drama with very good character building and a superbly evolving storyline. This is my pick from all the movies on Iraq, along with No End In Site.

The stunningly beautiful and cool blonde, Connie Neilson, contrasts vividly with the dark and passionate Iraqis she meets in this journey through occupation hell in Iraq. This fine drama delivers many wrenching moments on a modest budget, and depicts a serious mess in Iraq that compares negatively with the former regime of Saddam Hussein, who was so vilified to their own peoples by the lawless invaders, while many of the Iraqis on balance welcomed having a strong man in power. All the ambiguities are portrayed here, except the most salient and disgusting: the American occupiers' orgy of torture in the very prisons that Saddam used for the same purpose. Only towards the climax is there an interrogation scene that hints of the possibility of brutality, but the action pulls away and fails to confront the most urgent issue confronting American jurisprudence today. However, despite this important flaw, THE SITUATION is to be highly recommended as a courageous dramatisation of a state slipping towards failure while under the occupation of the US empire.

This film sums up what I have come to believe about the war in Iraq, and does it very well. Almost all of the other comments on it in this forum are accurate, in my estimation. It's remarkable that so much was accomplished with so little money-roughly one percent of the budget of Apocalypse Now, for example. The production values are so high in most respects that I have to conclude that the confusing ambient sound track was a conscious choice of the director's. The story is told, at times, from the viewpoint of the Iraqi characters, a remarkable feat in itself. At least a third of the dialogue is in Arabic, with subtitles. Like "Three Kings", the film shows the Iraqis not as villains or caricatures, but just as people stuck in a crummy situation for which America is responsible. One of the other reviewers quotes Damien Lewis' character stating the basic premise of the film:"There is no truth, you know....It's just that the truth shifts according to each person you talk to." The reviewer came close, but he missed one line that summed up The Situation for me: "...because the truth is covered over with layers of agenda."

Finally, if, ten or fifteen years from now, anyone is still interested in what was going on in the American war in Iraq, this film stands as the most convincing description I've seen.

Before I tear into this flaws of this film, I must say that the overall story is one that should be heard. The events that take place are very accurate reflections of "the situation" in Iraq, and the dialog spoken accurate reflections of the thoughts and feelings of those impacted by it. It is a movie that is worth seeing for anyone who wants a fairly accurate portrayal of the country and how it has been impacted by the war.

However, numerous aspects of the production take away from the experience.

1. Although it shouldn't impact the experience of the Western audience, one key flaw in this film is the Arabic language. The Arab actors, mostly Moroccan, don't speak in their native Arabic dialect but use fusha, or Modern Standard Arabic. The level of fluency in MSA varies from actor to actor, some of them speaking it smoothly and others butchering it. In many cases it is clear the actors are not at ease in the language. I feel if the director was not aiming at authenticity (by having their actors learn Iraqi Arabic), they should have just let the actors speak in their native tongue rather than MSA, which feels forced.

2. Closely related, a lot of the minor Arab roles were just terribly acted, the actors and actresses largely devoid of emotion or expression and monotone in their dialog. Many of them really appear to just be reciting lines, not acting. Iraqis (and other Arabs of the region) are very expressive when they speak, both in their facial expressions and in their gestures. Many of the smaller characters seemed entirely one-dimensional in that regard. Having lived in the region for a few years, many of the actors (extras mostly) were unconvincing.

3. The romantic subplot seemed convoluted and was not very convincing. It distracted from more important themes in the film.

4. Even in 2003 when this movie takes place (before the violence peaked), a tall, blonde American woman with no Arabic language skills would not be able to so easily travel around Iraq independently with only her scrawny teenage translator, especially in such conservative areas as Samarra. My wife is Iraqi and found this aspect of the film particularly unfeasible.

5. The naive right-wing ideologue character is a bit too much like a stereotypical characterture. Again, one dimensional and unconvincing.

6. Like many movies filmed in Morocco that are supposed to take place in Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, there are many subtleties that are inaccurate, from the architecture to the types of cars driven, and this film doesn't really give me the feeling of being in Iraq. For example, I don't recall seeing a single portrait or statue of Saddam in the entire film. Green Zone (which, while primarily shot in Morocco, also incorporates many sequences shot in Iraq) and the Battle of Haditha (shot in Jordan) depict the subtleties of Iraq much better. The Hurt Locker also does a decent job of this, as does Three Kings.

I suppose those are my main complaints, but they are mostly technical and related to the film-making, not the story which was generally well-written.

Still, I'd recommend Green Zone and Battle of Haditha over this.