Iraq in Fragments

Well, I finally found the very best documentary from 2006. This exploration of Iraq is reminiscent of the beautiful ethnographic documentaries (and faux-documentaries) of pioneer Robert J. Flaherty. The images are awe-inspiring and completely indelible. The film is broken into three parts. In the first segment, we follow the life of an 11 year-old Sunni boy in Baghdad. The second depicts Shia Muslims in Southern Iraq, particularly the followers of Moqtada al-Sadr. And the third follows a Kurdish family in Northern Iraq. Unlike Flaherty's documentaries, Longley's film is entirely real. The man spent two years wandering Iraq by himself with a camera starting in April of 2003, less than a month after George W. Bush famously declared that major military operations were complete. He's a white man, and it's stunning that he was able to infiltrate these people and film them on such an intimate level. The first and third segments probably held their own danger, but the second segment is especially impressive. How in Hell was Langley able to accompany Shi'ites as they kidnapped alcohol-peddling shopkeepers? It's mind-boggling. This is a rare documentary that is both informative and incredibly cinematic. As a whole, I think Iraq in Fragments comes pretty close to being a masterpiece. There's a silhouetted sequence of some Kurdish kids burning a tractor tire that is one of the most gorgeous shots I've ever seen. Definitely one of the best films of 2006.

This documentary, shot shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein, offers some remarkable footage of everyday life in post-war Iraq. What is suffers from slightly is its desire to work as art rather than documentary - there are a lot of fast moving montages, separated from the words of the people being shown, and often they're beautiful and striking; but you find yourself wishing that the film would slow down, and let you form a more definite, precise impression of the world being depicted. Equally, any of the three "fragments" of this film could easily have made a documentary in itself, and while exposition may be a the crime in fiction, I would have liked more of it here - who are these people, and what exactly is their position? But in spite of this, I still enjoyed the film, as an evocative glimpse into lives rarely seen; and knowing that things have got worse not better since it was shot, it's a heartbreaking glimpse as well.

My opinion in a nutshell: it was definitely worth seeing. Lots of great shots inside three incredibly different regions of Iraq, and the film captures many normal Iraqi citizens discussing US occupation and various daily matters. Not surprisingly, there are practically no women shown in the movie.

There is no narrative, and, for better or worse, no insight into the differences between the Sunni, Shia, and Kurds.

It's nice to see the real people of Iraq, as opposed to the terrorist caricatures created by sensationalist news snippets.

In terms of the footage, it appeared to be a mix of film and DV, with good quality the most part with some soft and muddy shots here and there. For the situations captured, the quality of the footage actually seems quite good.

Check it out if you get the chance...

There are a lot of documentary films about Iraq now. Most of them are about US soldiers in Iraq -- and that's fine. But those films are really more about the US experience than about Iraq as a country.

What IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS does is show the country, the people, that the US has occupied. And it does so with such beauty. I have never seen such a gorgeous documentary as this. The cinematography will knock your socks off. And so will the access Longley has to his film subjects, which is amazing. It's almost like the camera is totally invisible, floating in the air around the people in this film. When the lights came up I was sad; I just wanted it to keep going. Watching this film is like being placed inside Iraq, like magic.

A brilliantly made documentary, the first about Iraq that focuses exclusively on the people of that troubled land, rather than on the U.S. military occupation forces. The title is a triple entendre. We know that the country has been fragmented from its beginnings after WW I as a stitched together confederation of disparate Kurd, Shia and Sunni territories. Iraq was, of course, further fragmented as a consequence of the recent U.S. invasion. The title also refers to the cobbling together of fragments of footage shot at different times and places to create this film.

James Longley shot nearly 300 hours of film over a two year period, from April, 2003, to April, 2005. He has edited his material to produce a series of three stories, film fragments skillfully arranged to show us differing perspectives. Part I is set in Baghdad, and is Sunni slanted. Part II is set primarily in Naseriyah and features the radical Shia movement led by Muqtada al Sadr. Part III is set in the north, in rural Kurdish country.

Longley permits the people who live in these places to tell their own stories. There are no expert talking heads, no editorializing voiceovers. Youngsters as well as adults have their say (though every speaker is male; Longley says he has footage of women that could become the focus of another film). We venture into schools, marketplaces, religious and political rallies.

It is evident that only the Kurds here consider the American presence beneficent. But the only Shia element that is given voice here is the most anti-American, al Sadr's group (in Part II). We know that among the larger Shia majority, opinions about the U.S. are to some degree more variegated. It almost goes without saying that the Sunnis, the group most closely affiliated with Saddam's reign, is almost unanimously anti-U.S.

The artistry of Longley's film is breathtaking. His cinematography is first rate, with marvelous use of close-ups of people from imaginatively conceived camera angles, sometimes against distant scapes. One scene shows just hands and forearms of people in a crowd as they are reaching up for pamphlets: it is a stunning image.

The footage is high resolution with vivid coloration, except for several minutes of grainy footage with poor light quality near the end of Part II. The editing and sound are also wonderfully realized. While someone is talking, the camera drifts to images that complement or supplement what the speaker is saying. The film won best documentary awards at Sundance 2006 for direction, cinematography and editing. All well deserved. (In Kurdish, Arabic & English) My grades: 9/10 (A) (Seen at the Portland (OR) International Film Festival on 02/23/06)