LA ARAB FILM FESTIVAL
ASAAD ABDUL MAJEED, THE HITMAN UPSTAIRS
An Iraqi film, Qarantina, shot in Baghdad was by far the most powerful film shown at this years LA Arab Film Festival.
Considering the war torn conditions still going on in Iraq even after the withdrawal of American forces, it is a wonder that somebody has actually been able to conceive and shoot a dramatic feature film there -- in the city of Baghdad no less. The production company was Ger...
Award winning Iraqi film maker Koutaiba Al-Janabi's debut feature film, Leaving Baghdad, about the brutal Saddam Hussein regime, shown through the story of the everyday person, who gets caught up in the turbulances of the country's politics. The film provokes the question of guilt, conscience, collaboration, escape. Universal questions, that were asked in connection with Nazi Germany, with the communist regimes, with ...
Director: Koutaiba Al-Janabi.
Leaving Baghdad is a road movie that follows Sadik, the personal cameraman to the leader Saddam Hussein, at the end of the nineties. Sadik is trying to escape the grip of the regime, being pursued from country to country, encountering smugglers and crooks on his journey. Sadik suffers from paranoia and constant fear. The Iraqi secret police are after him because he is carrying evidence of the atrocities committed by the regime. Sadik is dreaming to go to London, to join his wife who is, however, unwilling to help. In his despair and loneliness, Sadik writes letters to his son, Semir. These letters turn into a confession and reveal Sadik's past and the real reason for his fleeing , the endless waiting and his paranoia.
On December 08, 2010, The Son of Babylon screened for a packed Olympia Theater in Thessaloniki. The majority stayed for a fascinating Q and A with visionary director Mohamed Al-Daradji
"Mohamed Al-Daradji, born in 1978 in Iraq, was recently awarded the title
of Middle East Filmmaker of the Year by Variety, a prestigious moniker
befitting the industrious and prolific director, producer and c
The filmfestival had been canceled owing to the security situation in Baghdad.
Baghdad International Film Festival is staged Dec. 16 to 19.Films for the fest will mainly be submitted from Egypt, Jordan and Iran, according to Iraqi helmer Dr. Abdul Basit Salman. Egypt plans to send 27 films, most of them shorts made by students at the High Institution for Cinema, although the country's two main television channels and some private production houses will be sending in features, he said.The last time a film festival was held in Baghdad was in September 2005 when 58 locally ma...
