MOVIE REVIEW: 'Iraq in Fragments'


Movie review in the Friday, Jan. 26 Oregonian ...



"Iraq in Fragments" takes the viewer to strange emotional places.

James Longley's Sundance-winning documentary puts its camera uncomfortably close to scenes of abuse, violence, terror, cynicism and racial hatred amid the rubble of U.S.-occupied Iraq. But at the same time, its texture -- the atmospheric, audio-visual vibe that washes over the viewer -- is frequently (and occasionally hypnotically) beautiful.

The effect could almost be described as "sectarian-rage tone poem." It's deeply humane and even more deeply unsettling, in a way most documentaries (particularly those about Iraq, which tend toward the polemic) never manage.

A lot of this has to do with director Longley's approach, which is notable for what it lacks -- namely, omniscient narration or title cards. The viewer never quite draws a clear bead on Iraq's geopolitical history or the filmmaker's political bias. Instead, Longley (who spent two years patiently and single-handedly gathering footage) simply drops his camera into three separate and very different human stories from different parts of Iraq:

• In the first, we travel to an alley in Baghdad to meet Mohammed, an illiterate, fatherless 11-year-old who suffers withering abuse at the hands of his employer/guardian, a garage proprietor who smokes cigarettes while calling Mohammed a "pimp" and a "mule" (and worse) for dropping out of school.

• Next, Longley embeds himself (at obvious personal risk) with the Shiite followers of Moqtada al-Sadr as they violently impose their brand of theocracy in Najaf and Nasiriya. The footage here is incredible: Longley is mere feet away from Shiite self-flagellation rallies and vicious beatings administered by masked soldiers of the Imam Mehdi Army as they "cleanse" a local marketplace of alcohol retailers. It's maddening and terrifying.

• And finally, as if to give the viewer a respite from all this hate, Longley takes us by rail to a northern farm community, where the Kurds -- who suffered the most under Saddam Hussein -- look skeptically but hopefully toward a less oppressive future.

Longley's refusal to explain anything outright -- to simply let Iraqis speak as we witness their stories in distinct, gorgeously shot environments -- succeeds on several levels (even if it makes you want to reach for the Internet mid-screening so you can put what you're seeing in some vague context).

The intimate camera work humanizes the Iraqis in a way that's pretty shocking if you've mostly experienced this war through TV and newspaper policy analysis and/or partisan spin. And, most powerfully, Longley's atmospheric, on-the-ground approach really makes you feel the deep divide is between Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds in different parts of the country, in a way that can only be shown, not told. Longley's deliberately frustrating, total-immersion approach reveals a truly fragmented culture, one almost totally philosophically alien to Western values.

Frankly, it leaves you wondering why anyone ever thought Iraq would embrace a secular Western democracy without much of a fight.

Oregonian movie reviews (OregonLive.com)

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Posted: Sat - February 3, 2007 at 11:47 AM        

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