'in rest sauzimdebine'
http://pws.cablespeed.com/~minut/mh/index.html
By ROBERT F. WORTH
Published: May 14, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 13 - One morning last month, Qasim al-Malakh, one
of Iraq's best-known actors, stood near a dusty vacant lot in a
dangerous part of southern Baghdad. He was dressed immaculately in a
dark suit and tie, and his co-star, Nagham al-Sultani, stood next to
him in a white bridal gown.
Enlarge This Image
Courtesy of "Love and War"
"Love and War" reflects the precarious nature of life in
Baghdad.
An episode of "Love and War" being shot on a Baghdad street. It is
Iraq's most popular television drama.
They were there to film the last episode of "Love and War," Iraq's
most popular television drama. Their characters, Fawzi and Fatin, had
just married after a long and troubled romance.
But now it was time for the final scene, and a little dose of Iraqi
reality. The cameras zoomed in on a car carrying the newlyweds to
their honeymoon. At a signal from the director, the car exploded,
sending thick curtains of flame and black smoke into the sky.
Fawzi and Fatin, like so many real Iraqis, had fallen victim to a
suicide bomber.
The episode, which will be broadcast in June, is the finale of a
series that has captivated Iraqis since it was first shown last year.
"Love and War" is a black comedy that could only have been made in
Iraq. It mixes slapstick and even a few Bollywood-style musical
numbers with a brutally frank portrayal of the violence here. Several
of its main characters die in bombings, others are kidnapped and tanks
and helicopters are a constant backdrop.
"We wanted to reflect the real atmosphere of life in Iraq," said the
show's director and chief writer, Jamal Abed Jassim. "You could get
kidnapped here any time. Or a bomb could kill you. This is our life."
In a sense, "Love and War" is a testament to the new freedoms Iraqi
artists have gained. Under Saddam Hussein, television and film were
strictly controlled, and directors carefully avoided suggesting any
criticism of the status quo, said Mr. Jassim, who began making
television shows and feature films in 1980.
Since then a number of new television dramas have been filmed, despite
the difficulty of setting up an outdoor shot in Baghdad. Like several
of the other shows, "Love and War" is produced by Al Sharqiya
satellite television network, founded last year by a Dubai-based
Iraqi.
But the show is blunt about the price Iraq has paid for its freedom.
The first season began with Fawzi and Fatin standing on the Jadriya
Bridge in Baghdad hours before the American bombing was to begin in
March 2003. "Is it possible that beautiful Baghdad will be burned?"
Fatin says. "What about our love?"
Fawzi clutches her hands. "It will survive, even if there is a war,"
he says, with music swelling behind him. There follows a slow montage
of the bombing of Baghdad and of its postwar ruins, while a mournful
voice sings about its past glory.
Even the show's comic moments can be violent. In one episode, Fawzi is
so busy flirting with Fatin that he fails to notice his car - the hand
brake left off - rolling backward downhill. It rolls all the way to an
American military checkpoint, where the soldiers, mistaking it for a
car bomb, riddle it with bullets.
"Love and War" does not always live up to Western production
standards. Most of it was filmed outdoors in Baghdad, and it sometimes
has the improvised look of a student film.
But improvisation is part of its charm. Often during the filming,
American soldiers walked up, alarmed at the sight of all the cameras,
actors and extras. Mr. Jassim often turned the camera onto the
soldiers - or the helicopters - and integrated them into the episode.
"When you put up a microphone, the helicopter pilots always think it's
a rocket-propelled grenade or a gun," said Mr. Malakh, an elegant
60-year-old who looks, and plays, characters 15 years younger. The
constant interruptions often delayed the filming, he said. But they
had a side benefit.
"In other countries getting a tank or a helicopter costs thousands of
dollars," Mr. Malakh said. "Here we get it for free." Making the
entire first season of "Love and War" cost about $150,000, he said.
The show centers on Fawzi, a kind of Iraqi Everyman who struggles to
do the right thing under trying circumstances. With his handsome,
careworn face and his light blue Volkswagen Beetle, he has an innate
kindness and a Chaplinesque tendency to get into scrapes.
In one early episode, Fawzi discovers, through his job at a government
telephone exchange, that a ring of kidnappers is planning to abduct a
small boy who lives nearby. Fawzi rushes to the boy's house to warn
his mother, but the mother is frightened and shoos him away.
When the kidnappers arrive shortly afterward and abduct the boy, the
mother names Fawzi as a suspect. It is only after he has been thrown
in jail that the police come to believe his story and, with his help,
find the real criminals.
Fawzi's beloved, Fatin, shares his beleaguered decency. She works at a
mental hospital where most of the staff ran off after the 2003
invasion, and she struggles to take care of the patients along with a
few helpers. She is from a rich family, and much of the plot revolves
around her mother's efforts to stop her from marrying Fawzi, who is
poor.
Part of the show's appeal, for many Iraqis, lies in its presentation
of these good-hearted heroes in a world of brutality and violence.
"Iraqis are truly like Fawzi and Fatin, but everyone talks about the
criminals," Mr. Malakh said. "This is important for us."
"Love and War" is not the only new series to offer a taste of Iraqi
reality. There is also "Al Hawasim," or "The Decisives," a term that
Iraqis began using for the looters who have ransacked much of Baghdad
after Mr. Hussein called the 2003 invasion "The Decisive Battle." In
the series, some of the looters have grown rich. Another is "The
Departure," about people who steal Iraqi antiquities, Mr. Jassim said.
Altogether, about 10 series have been filmed since the war, and half
of those have been broadcast, Mr. Jassim said. But nothing has drawn
the same passionate response as "Love and War," he said. It is popular
not just in Iraq, but in many other countries with Iraqi populations,
thanks to satellite channels.
After one episode last year in which Fawzi's mother was killed in a
suicide bombing, Balkes Razzak, a Baghdad homemaker, found herself
sobbing, she said. She called her sister in Romania, who had been
watching, too. "It was the talk of all the people in Iraq, and even of
the people who live abroad," Ms. Razzak said.
The first season, filmed early last year and shown in the late spring
and early summer, got little attention in the West because it
coincided with armed uprisings in southern Iraq and with Mr. Hussein's
first, televised appearance in court.
The second season, finished in mid-April, is darker, but there are
some lighter shades. Fawzi's friend Ahmad (played by Behjet
al-Juburi), a midget who had been pursuing an unlikely romance with a
beautiful young woman next door, finds happiness. They marry and have
twins.
No such happiness is in store for Fawzi and Fatin. Mr. Jassim says he
killed them off because he wanted to move on to other projects,
including an adaptation of Moli�re's "Miser" set in prewar Baghdad.
Mr. Malakh said tragedy was the only appropriate way to end the
series. "This is our life," he said. "I'm laughing with you now, but
for all I know my house has been bombed. This is the black comedy we
live."
Home Delivery of The Times from $2.90/week - Act Now!
Related Articles
* 79 Die in Attacks as Rebels in Iraq Intensify Fight (May 12,
2005)
* At Least 79 Are Killed in New Round of Attacks in Iraq (May 11,
2005)
* 100 Rebels Killed in U.S. Offensive in Western Iraq (May 10,
2005)
* Rebels Said to Have Pool of Bomb-Rigged Cars (May 9, 2005)
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for
anyone who cares about public education!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/_OLuKD/8WnJAA/cUmLAA/RR.olB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
*** sustineti [romania_eu_list] prin 1% din impozitul pe 2005 -
detalii la http://www.europe.org.ro/euroatlantic_club/unulasuta.php ***
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/romania_eu_list/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
