The secret weapon of “My Country, My Country” is something that never occurred to Michael Moore. This documentary of life in Iraq has no commentary whatsoever.
Filmmaker Laura Poitras spent eight months in Iraq in 2004-05, focusing her video camera on a doctor named Riyadh (and not on herself). He became a candidate in the much-heralded elections of 2005, although his people, the Sunnis, withdrew their participation shortly before the election.
Riyadh is outspoken about his anger over the U.S. intervention in his country, but he remains committed to the idea of the elections. We see him talking to military officials, and in his home life (where his wife – they have six children – is just as outspoken).
We also see him at Abu Ghraib prison, standing on the outside of a fence and talking to prisoners. This footage was taken before the revelation of outrages there.
The coming of the election gives the movie some conventional suspense, but what’s most important is the opportunity to see life at ground level. Poitras captures a variety of scenes: Kurds happy about the removal of Saddam Hussein, women terrified of bombs dropping near their home.
In one sequence, a U.S. officer breaks down in the middle of briefing his troops, when he recalls a pair of Iraqi translators, formerly a part of his team, killed by insurgents when the translators’ identities were exposed.
There are many troubling images here. One of the weirdest is when the camera sits in on a session between an independent security contractor and a weapons dealer. Because the use of uniformed soldiers was deemed inappropriate for guarding the polling places on election day, the U.S. contracted the security out.
Which is how we come to see an Australian security expert dickering with an arms broker (whose face we never see) in a deal that is clearly going to be thousands of dollars’ worth of AK-47s. I guess the silver lining here is that at least that money isn’t going to Halliburton. I think.
The film’s neutral tone can’t disguise the general portrait of despair and confusion. Poitras has said that the U.S. military has invited her to show the film at military bases, which makes sense because “My Country” gives such a nuanced portrait of Iraqi people. But this movie is not encouraging.
Riyadh outside Abu Ghraib prison in “My Country, My Country.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
