Iraq in Fragments, Dir James Longley, US 2006
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Iraq In Fragments
Pushing beyond the form and frame of conventional documentaries, director James Longley creates a view of modern-day Iraq that, while familiar, couldn't be further from what we see on the news - this is filmmaking rather than reporting.
An opus in three parts, Iraq In Fragments offers a series of intimate, passionately-felt portraits: A fatherless 11-year-old is apprenticed to the domineering owner of a Baghdad garage; Sadr followers in two Shiite cities rally for regional elections while enforcing Islamic law at the point of a gun; a family of Kurdish farmers welcomes the US presence, which has allowed them a measure of freedom previously denied. American director James Longley spent more than two years filming in Iraq to create this stunningly photographed, poetically rendered documentary of the war-torn country as seen through the eyes of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
Key Credits and Cast: Dir: James Longley
Release date: 19 January 2007
Running time: 94 mins
Country: USA / Iraq
Language: Kurdish / Arabic / English
Format available: 35mm/digi
Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Editing, 2006 Sundance Film Festival documentary competition
Grand Jury Prize, 2006 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.
"this one demands to be seen...mesmerizes with its insight and, rarer still, its beauty." Kenneth Turan, LA Times
"In beautifully shot, almost poetic images, it takes us inside this fractured country, letting us feel what its like from the inside from three points of view--Sunni, Shiite and Kurd. ... A fascinating glimpse of an Iraq the mass media never shows us, the movie is a quiet revelation."
David Ansen, Newsweek
"Iraq in Fragments is the latest entry in the crowded field of documentaries from that war. It is also one of the best, partly because it is more concerned with exploring daily life and individual destinies than with articulating a position. ... Whether you think the war is right or wrong, Iraq in Fragments is a necessary reminder of just how painful and complicated it is." A.O. Scott, The New York Times
"... a one-man production of startling audacity and aesthetic provocation. ... if Longley's astonishing feat of poetic agitation has a precedent in the entire history of documentary, I'm not aware of it." Rob Nelson, The Village Voice
"Iraq in Fragments is a stunningly beautiful film ... What this movie shows, you will never see on the evening news" Michael Moore
"Stands head and shoulders above an overcrowded field of documentaries about the Iraq war...This visually sumptuous movie richly deserves the cinematography, editing and directing prizes it carried off at Sundance last January." Ella Taylor, LA Weekly