Son of Babylon

The first impression was pretty much hopeless. I wondered why they made a movie with such a desperate plot.

But recalling each scene in the movie, everyone in the movie was so kind. The movie starts with a scene that an old woman and her grandson walk middle of nowhere in the desert of Iraq. They are Kurdish. They were severely persecuted under Saddam Hussein ruling. Three weeks after the Hussein regime fell, they started the travel from Kurdistan, northern Iraq, to Nasiriya, southern Iraq, where the woman believes her son is confined in the jail. The distance between Kurdistan and Nasiriya is about 700 km according to the Google map. The first truck driver ignored the boy's exclamation to stop, but he was an exception. All other people who encounter the old woman and the boy are very kind, despite many of them can not understand her Kurdish.

Through the TV and newspapers, our image of Iraq is chaos and hate. Deadly suicide bombings are daily events. Government is still in turmoil. And the conflicts between Arabians and Kurdish, or Sunni and Shi'ah do not end. In this movie, however, people sympathize, help and forgive each other. What does the title "Son of Babylon" mean? Babylon is the name when the country was in the highest glory. The dream of the woman and her grandson to see the hanging garden of Babylon did not come true. But this movie may be telling us to see the hanging garden covered by green leaves, beyond the desperate reality, by helping each other.

Son of Babylon marks the first few movie to be made in Iraq by an Iraqi, after the fall of Saddam Hussien's Regine. Director Mohamed Al Daradji, a former soldier under Saddam's Regine, tells the story on the despair of the loss of the loved ones during the Iraq war in the early 1900's, where family members of the victims could only see the remains of the loved ones buried under the bed of sand where they hoped for their loved ones to remain alive.

The story begins with a Kurdish grandmother, Um-Ibrahim, and her only grandson, Ahmed, on a journey towards Baghdad to look for her son, Ibrahim (grandson's father), who was forced into the army in 1991 during the outbreak of Iraq war. With a weak body and unable to speak Arabic, Um-Ibrahim wants the willful Ahmed to guide her along the streets of Baghdad, looking into possible places that she can find her son. Throughout the journey, the duo met a driver who drives them to Baghdad from the desert and a former soldier forced into performing a massacre during Saddam's Regine, who helps the duo in locating various mass graves to look for Ibrahim.

The story for the road movie is fairly simply, but this may not be an easy movie to understand, especially for audience who have no knowledge on the Iraq war and the massacre during Saddam's Regine. The willful Ahmed looks naive and innocent, without knowing what has happened around him until he has to accompany his grandmother in searching for his father. On the other hand, Um-Ibrahim seems more of a villager who is ignorant on the environment outsider her world. Unable to communicate with the people around her in Arabic, it becomes a barrier towards looking for her son. But she will locate her son no matter how difficult it will be. When both has to work hand in hand together, it breeds frustration: Ahmed is tired of his grandmother reading official letters locating the whereabouts of his father; Um-Ibrahim has to stop her grandson from running away from her without her knowledge.

When arriving on one of the destination, Um-Ibrahim helps Ahmed change a set of clothes, so that he will not look dirty should they found Ibrahim. At the same time, Ahmed helps Um-Ibrahim washes her face after traveling on a long journey. Such acts sends a message on the desperation and hope of thousands of Iraqi's looking towards finding their family members. As the story unfolds, we will see on how many of the Iraqi's burst into disappointment as their hope dashes after being taken to various mass graves, where victims who died under Saddam's Regine were buried in the wild.

The message Daradji wants to send to the audience across the world is the destruction of the lives and hopes of civilians when war broke out somewhere else, be it an foreign invasion or a civil war. At the same time, it also gives a view on the society in chaos after the war, on how people begin to pick up the pieces from the destruction without any order. Son of Babylon is a story told from the view of the Iraqi's who survived the war, where all the people wished for is for the family and the society to live together harmoniously, not out into a war for the benefit of an individual.

While we have plenty of movies featuring American troops controlling and restoring the order of Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussien, we do not have any movie that truly reflects the thought from the view of the Iraqi's. Son of Babylon is the first, and may be the only few movies in the world that could have done so. In short, Son of Babylon marks the first few important movie on the destruction of war in the cinema history.

There are major events in world history which the world would rather forget. These incidents revive painful memories which cause psychological hurt and heartache. But these events also serve as important lessons in the worldly scheme of things. One such history lesson is the reign of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. While we may not be the most knowledgeable people to tell you the exact terrors which happened during the infamous Gulf War, we are urging you to watch this emotionally engaging piece of work from Iraq, simply because you, our readers, are fellow human beings like us.

And we believe that human beings have the ability to feel human emotions, hence our existence. One avenue to experience real human emotions are well made films like this.

The story is heartbreakingly simple: We follow a headstrong young boy and his persistent grandmother on their journey across Northern Iraq as they search for the boy's father, a solider who has gone missing since the Gulf War. This happens after the fall of Saddam Hussein, when people are trying to pick up fallen pieces and return to normality. Here we have two hopeful souls, a boy in search of his father and a mother in search of her son – how will their road trip end? Director Mohamed Al-Daradji handles a politically throbbing topic in this award winning film which deserves an important place in the history of international cinema. The young filmmaker approaches this piece of history with extreme sensitivity, compassion and mostly importantly, empathy, as he tells this realistic tale through the camera lens. While it would have been convenient to exploit and milk emotional sympathy (read: Hollywood), the filmmakers took care not to demean the power of cinema by thoughtfully illustrating what the reality is like for the people who suffered the aftermath of Saddam Hussein's time in power.

The film's two protagonists are played by Yasser Talib and Shazda Hussein, who deliver calmingly powerful performances that will touch the most contemptuous viewer. Talib's idealistic adamancy comes from his boyish vivacious personality, while Hussein's buoyant stubbornness is coupled with an exasperating grief which aptly complements her co-actor's performance. Your attention will be with the grandmother grandson duo throughout the film's 90 minute runtime, as they uncover the reality which ultimately spells tragedy. A supporting character in the form of a former Republican Guard (played energetically by Bashir Al-Majid) completes this capable ensemble.

Richly filled with important political messages of peace and strong representations of symbolic imageries, it is evident that this production is one made with care and deliberation. It is no wonder the film has received critical acclaim at international film festivals, with the 60th Berlinale International Film Festival awarding it with the Amnesty International Film Prize and Peace Film Award, and the Edinburgh International Film Festival giving it a special mention earlier this year. As Iraq's official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film, we are keeping our fingers crossed that the Academy will give this film's its deserved accolade at next year's Oscars.

This film is the perfect example of how human emotions are universal, regardless of language. In a gently heartrending scene in this production with Arabic and Kurdish language, a woman tells another: "I do not understand your language, but I feel your sorrow and pain." This is human connection at its best.

Also, without giving away too much here, watch out for the devastating finale, which we are declaring as one of cinema's greatest moments.

A human tale of hope of closure, this humane film is about how people arise from the ashes and pick up where circumstances left them off – a must watch for 2010, definitely.

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The plight of Iraq, and especially the Kurds in Iraq, double struck by the worst imaginable disasters during the past 20 years, first the war with Iran where men where drafted into suicide and the genocide of the Kurds by Saddam and then now in the present carnage of the US occupation, serves as the premise and backdrop of this powerful movie.

Ahmed tries together with his grandmother to find his father, a soldier missing for 12 years. Saddam has just fallen and his mass graves are uncovered all over the north area. This is of course very difficult. They hitchhike their way through the country with what means possible, including a body transport.

The fact is that more than 1 000 000 people have gone missing in Iraq during the past 30 years or so and this is not internationally recognized in some (including Arabic) countries as what it is. This movie highlights this.

An important movie.

Great movie about iraq I recommend everyone to watch