Forget Baghdad: Jews and Arabs - The Iraqi Connection (2002)

Director:

Samir

Writer:

Samir (writer)

Release Date:

13 March 2003 (Germany)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot Keywords:

City Name In Title | Place Name In Title | Sephardic

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Shimon Ballas	...	Himself
Moshe Houri	...	Himself
Sami Michael	...	Himself
Samir Naqqash	...	Himself
Ella Shohat	...	Herself

Also Known As:

Vergiss Bagdad (Germany)

Country:

Germany | Switzerland

Language:

Arabic | English | Hebrew

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Switzerland:14 (canton of Zurich) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud)

Company:

Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion AG

Brilliant documentary on Mizrahim in Israel, on being a foreigner in your own country

Samir strikes again! In "Babylon 2" he was asking sons and daughters of immigrants about their experiences - he came to Switzerland as a young child, his parents are from Iraq. His father always told him about his Jewish colleagues in the Communist Party of Iraq. Samir wanted to talk to some of them - he didn't find them, but he found other former members of the Iraqi Communist Party, among them Samir Naqqash who still writes literature in Arabic and is viewed by Nagib Mahfuz as one of the best writers of literature in Arabic. He also talked to Sami Michael, beststelling author in Israel, also a Jew from Iraq. Last but not least, he asked Professor Ella Shohat from the City University of NY what it means to be an Oriental Jew in Israel. She wrote a book about the image of Oriental Jews in Israeli films - Samir quotes from Ephraim Kishon's "Sallah Sabati". He juxtaposes other cliches: Paul Newman in "Exodus", evil Jews and Arabs in "Jud Suess" and "True Lies".