Iraq in Fragments

This is stunning film.

Although perhaps it would have had more impact seeing the film right when initially released, when the conflict in Iraq was near its peak of violence, the documentary still offers a highly unique look into the Sunni, Shia, and Kurd conflicts. This is the ultimate slice of life documentary that delves straight into the everyday lives of Iraqis. Its goal isn't to offer some kind captivating narrative, nor to offer any kind of political commentary. It moves at a slow, tranquil pace, loosely structured in three chapters. The filmmaker, James Longley, stays as detached and neutral as possible, yet his camera is always strikingly up close and intimate with his subjects. There is no narration, allowing the people being filmed to fully tell their stories. The craft on display comes from the editing, which is highly stylized -- however, save for a few moments where it was overly jerky, the editing is in my opinion masterful and gives the film such a unique feel and rhythm that I haven't found in any other documentary. This might be a stretch, but at times while watching I felt like this is the kind of documentary that Terrence Malick would make. It's that cinematic! Needless to say, I also thought it was visually stunning.

I imagine many will be turned off by Longley's technique here, but I think if you're in a mellow mood, the film can slowly take hold of you and let you become immersed in the setting and the people's lives. The film offers nothing more than a look into the struggling lives of Iraqi citizens, dealing with foreign occupiers, adjusting after years of oppression, and trying to survive in an intense civil/religious war among each other. We witness their every day lives, the mundane and constant struggle of it all. We listen in on their conversations and interactions. We see them in both happy and sad moments. Ones of despair and chaos. We see brutality and bloodshed. Some have called this film boring, but I found it a very unique, at times fascinating, and always intimate portrait of a great human struggle.

This is an essential film for people interested in the conflict or documentaries as an art-form.

There are a lot of documentary films about Iraq now. Most of them are about US soldiers in Iraq -- and that's fine. But those films are really more about the US experience than about Iraq as a country.

What IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS does is show the country, the people, that the US has occupied. And it does so with such beauty. I have never seen such a gorgeous documentary as this. The cinematography will knock your socks off. And so will the access Longley has to his film subjects, which is amazing. It's almost like the camera is totally invisible, floating in the air around the people in this film. When the lights came up I was sad; I just wanted it to keep going. Watching this film is like being placed inside Iraq, like magic.

A brilliantly made documentary, the first about Iraq that focuses exclusively on the people of that troubled land, rather than on the U.S. military occupation forces. The title is a triple entendre. We know that the country has been fragmented from its beginnings after WW I as a stitched together confederation of disparate Kurd, Shia and Sunni territories. Iraq was, of course, further fragmented as a consequence of the recent U.S. invasion. The title also refers to the cobbling together of fragments of footage shot at different times and places to create this film.

James Longley shot nearly 300 hours of film over a two year period, from April, 2003, to April, 2005. He has edited his material to produce a series of three stories, film fragments skillfully arranged to show us differing perspectives. Part I is set in Baghdad, and is Sunni slanted. Part II is set primarily in Naseriyah and features the radical Shia movement led by Muqtada al Sadr. Part III is set in the north, in rural Kurdish country.

Longley permits the people who live in these places to tell their own stories. There are no expert talking heads, no editorializing voiceovers. Youngsters as well as adults have their say (though every speaker is male; Longley says he has footage of women that could become the focus of another film). We venture into schools, marketplaces, religious and political rallies.

It is evident that only the Kurds here consider the American presence beneficent. But the only Shia element that is given voice here is the most anti-American, al Sadr's group (in Part II). We know that among the larger Shia majority, opinions about the U.S. are to some degree more variegated. It almost goes without saying that the Sunnis, the group most closely affiliated with Saddam's reign, is almost unanimously anti-U.S.

The artistry of Longley's film is breathtaking. His cinematography is first rate, with marvelous use of close-ups of people from imaginatively conceived camera angles, sometimes against distant scapes. One scene shows just hands and forearms of people in a crowd as they are reaching up for pamphlets: it is a stunning image.

The footage is high resolution with vivid coloration, except for several minutes of grainy footage with poor light quality near the end of Part II. The editing and sound are also wonderfully realized. While someone is talking, the camera drifts to images that complement or supplement what the speaker is saying. The film won best documentary awards at Sundance 2006 for direction, cinematography and editing. All well deserved. (In Kurdish, Arabic & English) My grades: 9/10 (A) (Seen at the Portland (OR) International Film Festival on 02/23/06)

The most important thing lacking in my understanding of the problems in the Middle East and Iraq in particular is knowledge about the people and their beliefs. This film provides a tiny peephole into what drives Iraqis and what they feel is important. A very revealing aspect of the film is how Muslim religious leaders are able to get followers to exact justice upon those who don't agree with their religious beliefs. An incident where market vendors who are accused of selling alcohol are abused and kidnapped makes is easy to see how Iraqis, driven by religious zealots, can perpetrate such atrocities. Overall, this piece of work is amazing for its ability to get close to the everyday Iraqi and to give the viewer an unbiased glimpse of what life is like for them.

Iraq in Fragments is a documentary film directed by James Longley. Longley shot the film in Digital Video on a Panasonic DVX100 mini DV camcorder. The film premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival where it won three awards: "Directing Award Documentary", "Editing Award Documentary" and "Excellence in Cinematography Award Documentary". The film is also a part of the Iraq Media Action Project film collection. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film was shot in Iraq and edited at 911 Media Arts Center in Seattle. This film has three parts to it which describe the viewpoints of Sunni, Shi'ite, and Kurdish residents.

War Criminal George W. Bush Occupied,plundered and devastated Iraq and unfortunately was not impeached or punished!. What A Shame!.