SON OF BABYLON
Iraq, 2010, 95 minutes, Colour.
Mohammad Al- Daradji.
What would a 2010 movie made by Iraquis be like in the aftermath of the invasion and fall of Saddam be like? Here is the answer.
Son of Babylon is a simple film in outline, focusing on survivors, a grandmother form Kurdistan travelling south with her grandson to try to find her son, the boy's father, a musician who was conscripted to fight in 1991 by the Baarth administration and then imprisoned.
The setting is April 2003, three weeks after the fall of Saddam.
What is essentially an Iraqui road movie becomes the opportunity to remind the Iraqui audience of what it was like in those days: the bombings, the American roadblocks, people searching for loved ones, the finding of mass graves – and the helicopters hovering overhead.
The grandmother speaks only Kurdish, a solemn devout woman. The actress who plays her is still missing her husband in real life, searching for him for 22 years, so the performance is truly heartfelt. The boy is one of those naturally talented performers, lighting up the screen.
The film shows the relationship between the old woman and the boy as she struggles to communicate, as he impetuously acts like a boy and runs off at times. Incidental characters like the driver who gives them a lift, a Baghdad urchin who sells cigarettes in the street, a bus driver, the mosque imam and Musa, a former soldier from the south who had been forced to participate in northern massacres and is trying to atone, all offer a more rounded picture.
After years of headlines, TV coverage of the invasion and the subsequent years, the terrorism and the suicide bombers, it is still important to communicate with the world via storytelling so that the feeling behind the reports comes to life and makes an impact.
1.Iraq and the experience from the 1980s to the 21st century? Hardship, oppression?
2.Iraqi memories, retaining them, purging the harsh memories, signs of hope?
3.The impact of the film for an Iraqi audience? World audiences – and the attitude towards Saddam Hussein, his regime? To the American invasion? The Alliance? The aftermath of the war? The continued terrorism?
4.Saddam Hussein, the war with Iran, the gassing of the Kurds, the invasion of Kuwait, the clash with the Americans, the uprising after the Kuwaiti war? The Baarth government, the massacres, the mass graves?
5.Searching for the missing, the mass graves, discovering them, digging them up, identifying the corpses, the need for DNA identification?
6.The landscapes of the film the northern deserts, the winding roads, the mountains? The truck ride? Baghdad and the aftermath of the invasion, the bombings? The bus station and the lack of transport? Buses on the road? The southern town, the bombed prison, the mass graves? The sense of realism?
7.The mood of the film, the photography, naturalistic, real? The score?
8.The setting of April 2003? Saddam, his downfall, the references to him? The explanation of the massacres, the gassing of the Kurds? The Americans and the roadblocks? Their behaviour, colonial?
9.The grandmother and Ahmed, a road story, the introduction to each of the landscapes? The grandmother, her age, her veil, dress, praying? Ahmed and the clash with his grandmother? The possibility of the lift, her praying? Stopping the truck, paying the money, Ahmed arguing with the driver? Their talk, the beginnings of the background story, Ahmed’s father, conscripted in 1991, musician, fighting, sent to prison? Ahmed with his flute, his jacket? The grandmother and her search for her son?
10.The driver, wanting money, Ahmed arguing with him, the grandmother giving him the money? The music, Michael Jackson reference? The breakdown? Getting into Baghdad? The driver letting them sleep in the truck? His returning the money, the grandmother refusing, Ahmed taking it?
11.Baghdad, the people, the streets, the effects of war, the bus station? Ahmed and the little boy selling cigarettes, their friendship? The grandmother and her search for Ahmed? Chasing the bus, getting him in the window, her not being allowed on? The little boy chasing the bus with the grandmother, stopping the bus, letting her in?
12.The town, Ahmed and his sleepiness, wandering around the ruins while the bus was held up? Following the people, going into the tower, seeing them cross the river, on the bridge, washing and changing his clothes, ready for his father, entering the prison, the lists, the father not there? The grandmother finding the picture of her son? The mass of people and their grief, the women?
13.Musa, his help, his own story, in the wars, conscripted, sent to the north, participating in the massacres, the grandmother urging him away, calling him a murderer? Ahmed and his reminding his grandmother of her talking about forgiveness? Musa following them? Ahmed teaching him the flute?
14.The mosque, the sheikh, his saying there was the wounded soldier, the grandmother going in, it not being her son?
15.The visuals of the mass graves, the skeletons, the search? The Red Cross?
16.On the bus, going to Babylon, Babylon and its cultural traditions, the promise by the grandmother and Musa to show Ahmed the Hanging Gardens? Ahmed discovering his grandmother dead?
17.The abrupt ending – yet open to the future? Ahmed as the next generation?
18.The film and its part in the campaign for searching for the Disappeared and exploring the mass graves and identifying the victims?
