Some comments on James Longley’s film “Iraq in Fragments”
Iraq in Fragments is an award-winning documentary by Seattle-based director James Longley, who spent two years filming in Iraq. Visually the film is striking, even beautiful. It also displays a philosophy that people in a country such as Iraq ought to speak for themselves. Thus the three “chapters of the movie have no narration, no one telling the audience what to think or how to feel.
In the first chapter, “Mohammed of Baghdad,” you hear the voice of an 11-year-old working in a mechanic’s shop and the voices of the men with whom Mohammed works.
And you see the casual brutality and humiliation that is part of Muhammed’s life (and probably the lives of everyone he knows).
In the second chapter, “Sadr’s South,” with remarkable access to the followers of the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, Longley captures the images of an increasingly violent revolution and insurgency.
And in the final chapter, “Kurdish Spring,” he presents the images and voices of a Kurdish boy and his elderly father.
Iraq in Fragments is an award-winning documentary by Seattle-based director James Longley, who spent two years filming in Iraq. Visually the film is striking, even beautiful. It also displays a philosophy that people in a country such as Iraq ought to speak for themselves. Thus the three “chapters of the movie have no narration, no one telling the audience what to think or how to feel.
In the first chapter, “Mohammed of Baghdad,” you hear the voice of an 11-year-old working in a mechanic’s shop and the voices of the men with whom Mohammed works.
And you see the casual brutality and humiliation that is part of Muhammed’s life (and probably the lives of everyone he knows).
In the second chapter, “Sadr’s South,” with remarkable access to the followers of the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, Longley captures the images of an increasingly violent revolution and insurgency.
And in the final chapter, “Kurdish Spring,” he presents the images and voices of a Kurdish boy and his elderly father.
This technique of documentary filmmaking expects much of the audience. We are expected to sort out who the characters are, where they are, why they are saying what they say and act as they act. And remember, Longley distills more than 300 hours of film into the 97 minutes of “Iraq in Fragments.” The film’s website provides very thorough production notes: http://www.iraqinfragments.com/. And Longley gave a very long interview about the making of the film for the Seattle International Film Festival:
Some chronology might help. Longley decided to make a documentary about Iraq in the spring of 2002, when everyone expected the US to invade eventually. He made his first trip to Baghdad in September, 2002 … a few pre-invasion images are in the movie. In February of 2002, weeks before the invasion, he returned to Baghdad, but had to leave within a few weeks when his visa expired. This meant that when the US and its allies invaded March 20, Longley was watching on TV in Cairo. Shortly after the US military captured the city of Baghdad on April 9, Longley returned to Iraq, where he remained until April 2005.
The first chapter is filmed from his February 2003 visit until early 2004. The focus is a boy named Mohammed.
It is in a mixed working class Baghdad neighborhood (both Shia and Sunnis), although most of the grownups talking are probably Sunni (one complains that when they try to get work they are told to go to the headquarters of the Shia Dawa political party). Note the attitude the adults have about the Americans: how does Mohammed absorb these views? What else does he absorb from the adults he spends his time with? Note too how Saddam is discussed (and recall how Mohammed’s father died).
The first chapter is filmed from his February 2003 visit until early 2004. The focus is a boy named Mohammed.
It is in a mixed working class Baghdad neighborhood (both Shia and Sunnis), although most of the grownups talking are probably Sunni (one complains that when they try to get work they are told to go to the headquarters of the Shia Dawa political party). Note the attitude the adults have about the Americans: how does Mohammed absorb these views? What else does he absorb from the adults he spends his time with? Note too how Saddam is discussed (and recall how Mohammed’s father died).
Through the summer of 2003, Longley says, he felt relatively secure. American soldiers often strolled on the streets without fear. Note the way children and adults view American troops and patrols during this time.
As summer and fall progressed, violence worsened as insurgents targeted American soldiers and the US employed heavier tactics to break the resistance. Eventually Western and Iraqi reporters became targets of violence and kidnapping, and fearing for his security Longley left Baghdad for the Shiite-populated south. In August of 2003 he visited the holy city of Najaf in the south, where he established contacts with the Shiite religious leader Moqtada al-Sadr.
From late January to September 2004 Longley spent most of his time in the predominantly Shia city of Nasiriyah, where he (relatively) freely filmed Sadr’s followers as they sought to establish their control over the city. The Sadrists were organizing for elections, which they expected to win; the US sought to postpone free elections for a year, until the situation had stabilized. The second chapter lacks the focus on individuals of the first and third chapters.
A supporter of Sadr, Sheik Aws al Khafaji, receives most attention. Longley films an amazing incident when Sadr’s followers rout street venders purportedly selling alcohol. Note the contrasts the blindfolded and beaten merchants draw between Saddam and the Sadrists.
Longley films scenes form Ashura, one of Shia Islam’s holiest celebrations. For some background of Shiites, their celebrations, and parallels with different strains of Christianity, see the article by Elias Mallon, “Shiite Muslims: The Party of Aly”:
Another dramatic scene if the battle of Kufa on April 4 2004. Spanish soldiers fired on Sadrist demonstrators, setting off months of fighting between Sadr’s supporters and coalition forces. Forty minutes into the fighting in Kufa Longley arrived by taxi. About a minute of the fighting in Kufa shown in “Iraq in Fragments” (a grainy section) was filmed by one of the demonstrators who was being shot at.
Don’t be confused by the young boy who frequently sings and shouts at rallies: it isn’t Mohammed from the first chapter.
As the Sadrists grew frustrated with the heavy losses they absorbed fighting the Americans, they lashed out at Longley, bringing him before a religious court on charges of filming where he shouldn’t. He got off without a beating or worse, but realized it was time to leave the south. In September 2004 Longley relocated to the Kurdish section of Iraq to the north, where he remained until April 2005.
In “Kurdistan” Longley set up camp in a place called Koretan, a village so small it’s not on many maps.
He was attracted by the brickmakers’ ovens, which use petroleum for fuel and belch out appallingly beautiful billows of black smoke. Note the attitudes toward the Americans expressed by the Kurds: why does it seem to differ form the Sunnis’ in Baghdad and the Sadrists in the south? January 30 2005 witnessed legislative elections for the Iraqis. Longley films a Kurdish polling place.
For good background on Iraq, the magazine Mother Jones has prepared a feature they call “Iraq 101”: everything Americans should have known before invading.
