The Common Ills: Iraq's film industry

Wednesday, November 06, 2013

Iraq's film industry

In the first five days of the month, Iraq Body Count counts 109 violent deaths. Today, the sixth day of the month, violence continues. National Iraqi News Agency reports a Baghdad roadside bombing claimed 1 life and left six people injured, 2 Falluja bombings left an Iraqi military officer and an Iraqi soldier injured, a Kirkuk roadside bombing left four people injured, another Kirkuk bombing targeted police and left six of them injured, a Salam suicide car bomber took his/her own life and the lives of 4 police officers with another ten police left injured, and an Abu Ghraib bombing left six people injured. Of the Salam suicide bombing, AP notes the death toll has risen to 7 with fourteen injured. AFP adds, "In Baghdad, a policeman was shot dead while on patrol in the city of Sadr, while two roadside bombs in the capital left three others dead, including an anti-Qaeda militiaman."

That's Jody Watley's "Nightlife" which has made it into the top twenty in the UK. Jody is famous for many things including her outstanding fashion sense, being a dancer on Soul Train, a member of Shalamar, an outstanding solo artist (who first hit with "Looking For A New Love"), a Grammy winner and an all around great person. Congratulations to her on this success.

We always have time for music and for artists and we'll transition over to film. Friday, Hispanic Business carried a Daily Star article on the Abu Dhabi Film Festival where Iraqi filmmakers competed and three won top honors:

The Special Jury Award (runner-up) prize went to Iraq-Kurdish-born Hiner Saleem for his Western-inflected, Kurdistan-set "My Sweet Pepper Land." The film was made with assistance from ADFF's SANAD film fund.
The Best Film from the Arab World prize went to "In the Sands of Babylon," a SANAD-supported docudrama by Mohamed Jabarah al-Daradji, who is also Iraqi.
[. . .]
New Horizons' Best Arab Film prize went to another Iraqi, Hisham Zaman, for his "Before Snowfall," an unconventional road movie about a young man dispatched to defend his family's honor by killing his sister.

For a list of all the winners, click here. I believe this is Mohamed Jabarah al-Daradji (but I'm basing that on a series of photos a friend took at the Cannes film festival -- two of which included al-Daradji).

The Abu Dhabi Film Festival has a series of photos here but no captions to them, my apologies if I've incorrectly remembered Mohamed Jabarah al-Daradji's face.

While three Iraqis did incredibly well at the festival (which wrapped up last week), film is not thought to be doing well in Iraq. Ali Abdulameer (Al-Monitor) reported last week:

In the days following the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, many anticipated that American culture would prevail. Yet, the paradox is that the “new Iraq” has witnessed a merciless war against all forms of modernity in terms of culture, the arts and sciences, in favor of religious extremism. This reflected the presence of representatives of religious extremism among the ruling political elites. Following 2003, movie screens turned off, theaters were closed, and sometimes even burned down. This was the case in the majority of Iraq’s Arab provinces, where music and CD shops were defaced.
Today, there are no high-quality movie theaters in Baghdad, Basra — the second-largest city in the country — or Mosul, which has become the stronghold of religious and ethnic extremism since 2003. There are no Hollywood shows in the “American Iraq,” except for those provided by Arab and American TV channels that can be watched in the region.
It is true that there has been no decision issued by the Iraqi government to ban American and Western films and programs in general, but the channels controlled by the government do not actually broadcast any Western movies or music. Meanwhile, they are keen — alongside dozens of TV channels controlled by the ruling religious parties and influential through their militias — to broadcast a culture that writes off good music and fine movies as taboo, even in the absence of an official government decision.

As we noted in the snapshot on Halloween, Iraq's a part of one of cinema's horror classics, The Exorcist. Iraq's long struggling film industry (struggling due to the government -- the ever-changing government -- not due to talent) had a brief golden age which covered the 40s and the 50s. Since, it's struggled under attempts by the various governments to co-opt it and attempts to turn it into a government propaganda outfit.

Reuters has an article today which notes:

The country has a long cinematic history, with films being produced in Iraq and feature-length films as well as documentaries being made.
But during the 24-year rule of Saddam Hussein from 1979, the industry mainly served as a propaganda tool for his Baathist party, which also commissioned art, theatre and music.
Films focused mainly on the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war, portraying Iraq as the victor in the conflict, which ended in a stalemate and ceasefire. The film “The Long Days” told Saddam's life story.
The heyday of the industry came in the 1970s, when the government established its first theatre, allocated more funds for full-length movies and attracted Arab filmmakers to help.

I don't know, maybe the press is just obsessed with Saddam Hussein?

Reuters is lying or uninformed. Again, general studies majors should probably not try to write about very much. They're not trained and that is so obvious above.

The 40s were the glory. By the fifties, tensions with the money men (especially the Jewish money men) meant Iraq would struggle in the fifties -- with concepts and money. And then came the first wave of propaganda

The 1958, 1963 and 1968 coups were all accompanied with a strong push for propaganda films glorifying various governmental figures. (Even during this time, Iraqi filmmakers were able to make some landmark films -- despite the efforts of the government.) These periods are much more damaging than Saddam Hussein's.

He might have wanted to do more damage, but he didn't have the money the others did. A year after he came into power, he was pouring most of the governmental money into the Iraq - Iran War. In the 90s, governmental money was in short supply due to international sanctions.

That's a world away from the various governments Iraq had from 1958 until 1979 (Hussein comes into power in 1979) which had huge monies to spend and pour into a film industry.

I have no idea why Reuters published such a factually challenged article. The heyday, Iraq's first Golden Age of film, is 1940 through 1959 -- with most of the films considered classics in the Arab world having been made in the 40s (most, but not all). Again, strong films have been made throughout (1967's The River is an example of a film made after the Golden Age which is considered a classic of the region), but that was their first Golden Age. That shouldn't be surprising since it was a Golden Age for most countries (including England the US). Had Iraq had a thriving silent film industry, they might have had an earlier Golden Age. Their film industry really develops after the arrival of sound.

The following community sites -- plus the ACLU, Jody Watley, Pacifica Evening News and Antiwar.com -- updated last night and today: