"Operation Filmmaker" is at once a searing indictment of colonialism
in Iraq and the phony do-goodism of Hollywood, all revolving around
the interaction between Muthana Mohmed, a twenty-five-year-old
Baghdad film student, and his various "rescuers" in the film
industry. At the conclusion of Nina Davenport's excellent
documentary, you don't know who is more disgusting–the military men
who have ruined Iraq or the film executives who have turned Muhtana
into a psychologically and economically dependent tragicomic figure.
Shortly after the war in Iraq began, MTV interviewed Muthana in
Baghdad about how an errant American bomb had just leveled the only
film school in the country, thus destroying his dream of being a
director. After listening to the interview, American actor and
director Liev Schreiber decided to "rescue" him from Iraq and make
him an intern on the latest film he was directing in Prague:
"Everything Is Illuminated". Muthana came to Prague with dreams of
learning the craft of filmmaking, but his job was to be a "gopher",
bringing coffee to the cast, cleaning Schreiber's shoes and preparing
vegan snacks for one of the producers. Preparing the snacks is a real
production, involving the exact combination of nuts and dried fruits.
Muthana is told that if the combination was not correct, there would
be hell to pay.
full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/04/26/operation-filmmaker/
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