You Have to Watch Bagdad High on HBO
We stumbled onto this amazing documentary last night while channel surfing and we are really glad we found HBO’s documentary, Bagdad High. The producers gave 4 Iraqi High School seniors video cameras and taught them how to video blog their lives as they faced the typical trials and problems of High School mixed with the dangers of living in a War Zone.
The boys each faced very typical problems, such as studying for tough exams, trying to date, daydreaming about becoming famous, and worrying about their futures in college or in the job market. Plus, their country was in turmoil. Saddam was on trial and hanged, sectarian violence was reaching a fever pitch, the American forces, whom they had cheered when they arrived had done little to stop the violence, but the surge was on the way.
As their stories unfold in the film, you find yourself gripped by their problems as well as attracted to their wit and charm. As typical boys, they roughhouse with one another, play jokes, sneak around to meet each other during a curfew, and try to hide their cameras from soldiers at checkpoints. And when they have to take their final exams, you find you are on pins and needles while waiting for their grades to come back.
The film was well received at the Tribeca film festival. From HBO’s site here:
Ali, the Kurdish boy who flees to Kurdistan, now lives in the United States. At Tribeca, the theater was packed with very vocal high-school students from the Bronx and Brooklyn. The girls in the audience had pretty much decided after ten minutes in the film, that Ali was the cutest so when we said at the Q&A that Ali was there the roof came off and the whole place went bonkers. Girls started throwing their phone numbers at him. He couldn’t get to the stage, he was mobbed like a rock star. All the questions were more about whether Ali had a girlfriend rather than what his life was like. And then all of a sudden it got really serious. There were two big lines behind the microphone and one of the kids got up and said he had just signed up for the Marine Corps, and he would probably be in Iraq within three or four months. And he said, “I finally know what life is like behind those walls and what you guys are like, and it’s been really, really fantastic.” And at that moment I could see Ali beam with of pride, thinking, “Well, at least I’ve been able to make the difference for one person.”
One of the things you find yourself asking during the movie, is “gosh, these kids are so nice. I hope they don’t think we are all assholes for invading their country.” But as the film unfolds, you find out how they feel about those things. The older Iraqis are happy that Saddam is hanged, and the kids sometimes wonder if the hanging was actually real and not faked. One kid talks about a relative of his that was murdered by Saddam. One kid’s mom tells the camera that at first she welcomed the Americans, but now all she wanted was safety and security so they could get on with running their own country. And during one power outage, one teen prays aloud to Allah asking why the terrorists murder people and wonders what they are trying to achieve?
There seems to be little animosity against the Americans, but life is certainly not easy. But it was getting better with the surge. Ultimately the movie is about hope and the human spirit. See this film.
