Type:
Documentary
Director:
Samir
Year:
2003
Time:
111 minutes
Produced by:
Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion
Written by:
Samir
Language:
In Arabic, English, and Hebrew with English subtitles
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Winner, Jury Prize - 2002 Locarno Film Festival
Winner of the 2002 Locarno Jury Prize, Forget Baghdad tells the forgotten story of four Baghdadi-Jews, all former members of the Iraqi communist party who were forced to emigrate at Israel’s founding.
Iraqi-born, Zürich-based director Samir (Babylon 2) “achieves a density of ideas and images that extend the boundaries of the documentary form” (Vancouver International Film Festival), fashioning a story at once “timely and thought-provoking” (Variety). Reflecting on the stereotypes of the “Jew” and the “Arab” in the last hundred years of cinema, Forget Baghdad masterfully weaves its political, social and cultural themes to a visually innovative and narratively profound end.
The four elderly protagonists (all now successful Israelis) were influenced in their youth by the internationalism of the Iraqi communist party. But in the early 1950s, their Jewish identity put them at odds with the rising Arab nationalism so characteristic of the decade. Fleeing to Israel was hardly a solution, as the men found themselves on the outskirts of a society built and governed by European Jews. Jews in Baghdad and Arabs in Israel, the divided identities and confusion of these four men’s lives tell a much larger tale of global, political and cultural disorder.
Featuring interviews with renowned cultural studies scholar Ella Shohat, Forget Baghdad is suitable for instruction in world cinema, Middle East and postcolonial studies as well as Jewish, Hebrew, or Arabic studies.
Visit the film’s official website, www.forgetbaghdad.com
"Casts a cold light on racial intolerance in Iraq, where four of the film's subjects were born, and Israel, where they now live." -Variety
Rental Information
This film is available from AFD on 35mm and video for public screenings and television broadcast. For information regarding rental rates and formats, please contact institutions@arabfilm.com for institutional/non-theatrical screenings, or festivals@arabfilm.com for theatrical, festival, television, or other bookings.
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