The
scene is Fallujah in the winter of 2004, where a troop of American soldiers is
holed up a year after President George W. Bush announced “mission
accomplished” in Iraq. Occupation: Dreamland follows a squad from the
US Army’s 82nd Airborne unit as they deal with the difficulties of daily life
and disillusionment in Fallujah. As the film builds up to the final spurt of
battles that destroyed the city, we are treated to an uneasy relationship
between the citizens of Fallujah and the soldiers, who are faced with the moral
uncertainties of modern warfare.
The
Liberace of Iraq
Sean
McAllister, UK, 2004
75m.
English and Arabic with English subtitles
For
eight months in a “post war-torn” Baghdad, pianist Samir Peter (who calls
himself the Liberace of Iraq) and filmmaker Sean McAllister were thrown
together, often at a heavily guarded hotel where Peter played in a bedraggled
bar to journalists, ne’er-do-wells, and contractors. Peter’s wife and two of
his children left him and went to America, fed up with his girlfriends and
flashy lifestyle. Peter, who also obtains a visa for the US, is ready to leave,
only to face opposition from his daughter, Sahar. Sahar hates what the US has
done in Iraq and refuses to leave. And as the violence grows and kidnapping
becomes a way of life, Samir is faced with a choice: Leave for America and a
newer, happier life, or support his remaining family in Iraq.
Pulled
From the Rubble
Margaret
Loescher, UK
63m,
English
What
happens to a person when he or she is the lone survivor of a terrorist attack?
Gil Loescher faced this situation when he traveled to Iraq on a humanitarian
quest. While Loescher and his group were meeting with the head of the United
Nations in Iraq, Sergio Viera de Mella, a truck of explosives crashed through
the headquarters leaving de Mella dead. Loescher was the only survivor from the
portion of the building that had the most damage. Pulled From the Rubble
is his daughter’s story of how the family dealt with the tragedy and made a
new life for themselves.
Midwinter
Night’s Dream
Goran
Paskaljevic, Serbia and Montenegro
95m,
Serbo-Croation with English subtitles
A
postwar climate can be as explosive as when the war is actually happening, or so
we discover from Midwinter Night’s Dream, which some critics are
calling the defining film on postwar life. The film follows Lazar, an army
deserter released from prison in the winter of 2004, who travels to his home to
try and pick up the pieces. He finds squatters in his home, a woman and her
severely autistic daughter. They are Bosnian refugees and Lazar forms an uneasy
relationship with them that grows into the kind of family atmosphere that he
needs to survive in this desolate landscape.
Wall
(Mur)
Simon
Bitton, France/Israel
100m,
Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles
Simone
Bitton gave us Citizen Bashara at the 2002 HRWIFF and now he presents Wall
(Mur), a haunting look at the wall of separation constructed by Israel to
block off Palestinian communities. With piercing cinematography and a vast array
of commentators, Wall (Mur) explores the difference of opinions on the
barrier—is it really to block off Palestinian terrorists or is it a masked
attempt at Israeli land-grabbing? What the wall represents depends on who you
talk to, but for all it’s a controversial and divisive piece of architecture.
State
of Fear
Pamela
Yates, Paco de Onis and Peter Kineo, USA/Peru
94m,
English and Spanish with English subtitles
|
 |
|
State of Fear tackles the Peruvian dictatorship that cost 70.000 lives long before the “war on terror” was born. |
This
opening-night film shows the real consequences of a “war on terror,” long
before US soldiers set foot in Iraq. The question set forth by this film is a
very important one by present events: Can there be a free, open society in a
situation where the demand for utmost security and protection from terror is as
important? What do you sacrifice in freedoms to be safe? State of Fear takes
us to Peru at a time when it faced escalating violence until it became a lawless
dictatorship. With a mix of archival and historical footage and personal
interviews, the film shows how military justice replaced the democratic process.
And by the time the dictatorship was thrown over, nearly 70,000 Peruvians had
died.
*The
Human Rights Watch International Film Festival is running in New York City from
June 9 to 23 at the Walter Reade Theater at the Lincoln Center. Some of the
films will later join the traveling HRW film festival when it visits a number of
US cities throughout the rest of the year. For more information visit http://www.hrw.org/iff/2005/.
**
Dilshad D. Ali’s writing reaches
across the United States to address lifestyle topics pertinent to Muslims and
non-Muslims alike. Ali has covered movie premieres, film festivals, art
exhibitions, concerts, and numerous other cultural stories, including the effect
of September 11 on New York’s cultural landscape, for IslamOnline. Ali, a 1997
University of Maryland journalism graduate, resides in New York with her husband
and two children. You can reach her at bridge@islamonline.net.
