I have seen this documentary on the European culture channel ARTE, part of the Wednesdays of History cycle. It tells the story of one of the most ambitious technical endeavors at the beginning of the 20th century which was tightly related with the political realities of the last years of the Ottoman Empire - the construction of the railway that links Constantinople with Baghdad, and with the tentative of the German Empire to extend its influence into the Middle East. The film is very well made, it brings a lot of interesting and detailed information about the period, and makes use of documents, interviews with history experts and descendants of the principal characters involved in the story, archive filmed footage and enacted scenes which for a change look quite well here because they fit smoothly with the rest of the documentary scenes, and because the actors avoid speaking imaginary dialogs as in many other films that use this technique. The actors are well chosen as well, and the combination of documents and acting brings to life into a veridical manner the principal characters of the historical drama that was played in that area for two decades - the German engineer Meissner, the British Gertrude Bell and Lawrence.
At the average length of a full fiction film 'Bagdadbahn' keeps the interest alive for the whole duration of the screening. The story of this railway contains the mix of history, politics, romance and adventure that can provide the premises of a great fiction film in the future.
