Forget Baghdad: Jews and Arabs – The Iraqi Connection
7 /10 1 Votes
75% Rotten Tomatoes Directed by Samir Music by Rabih Abou-Khalil Screenplay Samir | 7.7/10 IMDb 58% Metacritic Written by Samir Director Samir Music director Rabih Abou-Khalil | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Produced by Samir
Gerd Haag
Karin Koch Starring Shimon Ballas
Moshe Houri Cinematography Nurit Aviv
Philippe Bellaiche Initial release 21 November 2002 (German-speaking Switzerland) Producers Samir, Gerd Haag, Karin Koch Cast Ella Shohat, Samir Naqqash, Sami Michael, Shimon Ballas, Moshe Houri Similar Movies about Iraq, Historical movies, Documentaries | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Forget Baghdad: Jews and Arabs – The Iraqi Connection is a 2002 documentary film about the Mizrahim, or Jewish community of Iraq. It was written and directed by Samir, an Iraqi born in Baghdad in 1955 and living since 1961 in Switzerland.
The film focuses on five expatriate Iraqi Jews, most living in Israel: Shimon Ballas, Moshe (Moussa) Houri, Sami Michael, Samir Naqqash, and Ella Habiba Shohat.
The film's music is by Rabih Abou-Khalil. It was produced by Karin Koch and Samir and edited by Nina Schneider and Samir. The directors of photography were Nurith Aviv and Philippe Bellaiche.
The film was a coproduction between TagTraum Cologne, Gerd Haag, SF DRS, Teleclub, and Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion. It is 112 minutes in length.
The DVD, which is distributed by Arab Film Distribution, comes with a 30-minute "Making of the film" featurette. The DVD has multiple audio tracks and subtitles in English, German, French, Arabic, Hebrew, Italian, and Spanish.
Reception
– Stephen Holden, New York Times, 12/4/03
– Anya Kamenetz, Village Voice, 12/2/03
– V.A. Musetto, New York Post, 12/5/03
– Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post, 4/16/04
– Deborah Young, Variety, 12/23/03