This is a short review I wrote for a film released in 2007, directed by Nina Davenport. you can view the film at IMDB
Tracking and documenting the story of Muthana Mohmed, Operations Filmmaker tells the story of an aspiring Iraqi film-maker who’s invited to work on a US funded film project after being spotted in an MTV short. While the motivation fuelling the project is billed as purely altruistic – the experiment doesn’t go the plan – and to her credit – the director Nina Davenport keeps on filming.
Ultimately I felt this film was a study of ulterior motives; and after watching it, it left me focusing on the behaviour of the members of the film crew rather than (the central character) Muthana’s deeds. Muthana’s journey out of Iraq is presented as an altruistic experiment; but, much like the invasion, the ramifications are ill-thought and the gesture is meek.
Part way through the film, some members of the crew express their displeasure that Muthana wasn’t more humble and willing to chip-in, but I’m left thinking that this may have been because he didn’t meet the specific narrative objectives that they’d all, at least partly, imagined he’d fulfil. The initial decision to document the project, in some way seemed testament to this.
Having watched Operation Filmmaker, I came away thinking about how the war in Iraq has affected Iraq’s society in complex ways. We’re often informed of what the ‘Iraqi citizen’ thinks – but we’re rarely exposed to the idea that there is no general consensus. The society of Iraq is often trivialised and compacted into a monoculture – it’s strange and bizarre that we’re able to accept this.
The film is interesting on many levels and it feels like the result wasn’t expected by those involved in the project – which makes the journey all the more engaging. Mostly it reminded me of the importance of conviction – and the folly involved in trying to absolve guilt using superficial means.