Filmmaker James Longley offers three thumbnail sketches of Iraq as the nation struggles to its feet following the American Invasion in this documentary. In the film's first chapter, Mohammed Haithem is an 11-year-old forced to make his own way in Bagdhad after the disappearance of his parents. Mohammed earns his keep working in an auto-repair shop, though he would prefer to go back to school, and has developed a precocious cynicism about the presence of U.S. troops along with a fear of the ongoing battles between Sunni and Shia forces. Elsewhere, the struggle of the Kurdish people of Iraq is personified in a handful of people working together on a farm, where they tend crops, make bricks, and look to their blighted past as well as hoping for a brighter future. And the fundamentalist Shiite cabal of Moqtada Sadr is profiled as they travel from Najaf to Naseriyah, promoting government based on a strict interpretation of Muslim law. As Moqtada Sadr's military cadres enforce the rule they have set down, they clash with American soldiers, further dividing an already polarized populace. Iraq in Fragments was screened in competition at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review by All Movie Guide
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Iraq in Fragments is unique from contemporaneous documentaries covering the 2003 American invasion and occupation of Iraq, like
Control Room and
The War Tapes, in that it is told entirely from the Iraqi perspective and is not at all concerned with the American point of view. The three movement structural approach is notable less for what it reveals about Sunni, Shia, and Kurdish perspectives than the specific lives of the subjects covered and their hopes for the future. In the first section, about 11 year-old Mohammed Haithem in Baghdad, we hear his thoughts regarding the strange soldiers and Humvees patrolling the streets, but the boy is most concerned with his schoolwork and work under the tutelage of the auto shop's harsh owner. The painterly cinematography by director James Longley aims for the studied framing and attention to light and color associated with narrative film techniques rather than the hand-held immediacy of documentary journalism. Longley focuses on his subjects with a refreshingly nonjudgmental and humanitarian eye that reminds the viewer that the Iraq war is essentially about Iraqis and encourages consideration of their often unseen day-to-day lives. It's a lyrical and quietly affecting film. Iraq in Fragments was nominated for and won a number of awards, including a nomination for the Best Documentary Feature in the 2006 Academy Awards and wins for Best Directing, Cinematography, and Documentary Film Editing at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Michael Buening, All Movie Guide