Homeland: Iraq Year Zero (2015), Abbas Fahdel (attending in person)

Screening, Part II
Organized by: Center for Global Media, Department of English
Location: Center for the Arts 112

Followed by @6 pm

Conversation with director Abbas Fahdel (Clip Talk)
Introduced by Prof. of Film and Media Theory Tanya Shilina-Conte, Department of English

This event is generously sponsored by the Department of English, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Department of History, the UB Intercultural and Diversity Center, and the UB Libraries.

“A transformative verité glimpse into the lives of ordinary Iraqis… Worth every second.” Peter Debruge, Variety

This event is generously sponsored by the Department of English, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Department of History, the UB Intercultural and Diversity Center, and the UB Libraries.

“A transformative verité glimpse into the lives of ordinary Iraqis… Worth every second.” Peter Debruge, Variety

Description: In February 2002—about a year before the U.S. declared war in 2003—Iraqi filmmaker Abbas Fahdel traveled home from France to capture everyday life as his country prepared for war. He zeroed in on family and friends as they went about their business, with much of the action seen through the eyes of the director’s 12-year-old nephew, Haider. When Fahdel returned in 2003, two weeks after the war started, daily activities like going to school or shopping at the market had become nearly impossible; many areas of Baghdad had been closed off to ordinary citizens, yet everyone pressed on. The young Haider represents, in various ways, the voice of his people. Homeland, whose title was inspired by Roberto Rossellini’s Germany Year Zero (1948), counts among the most essential and urgent documentaries of recent times. Often recalling Frederick Wiseman, Fahdel’s intrepidly curious yet always unassuming camera patiently gathers intimate moments to assemble a rough-hewn epic of naturalist cinema and a searing, courageous act of testimony.