Iraqi director gives voice to his nation

[Kadie]

Iraqi director gives voice to his nation
By CHARLES J. GANS, Associated Press Writer
8 minutes ago


NEW YORK - If the Oscar for best foreign-language film were awarded to the filmmaker who overcame the greatest hardships and faced the biggest risks to bring his vision to the screen, then Iraqi director Mohamed Al-Daradji would be the odds-on favorite to take home the golden statuette for his debut feature film, "Ahlaam."

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When the power went out, he used car headlights, flashlights and candles to light his sets. Al-Daradji not only carried a camera but sometimes an AK-47 automatic rifle loaded with blanks as a deterrent. An Iraqi policeman assigned to protect the film crew was killed in a shootout with insurgents.

As he neared the end of filming, Al-Daradji says, he and three of his crew were kidnapped and narrowly escaped being killed by insurgent supporters of Saddam Hussein, who accused them of making a propaganda film supporting the U.S.-backed Iraqi government. He says their captors were preparing to shoot them before fleeing at the sound of an approaching police siren. Later that same day, he says, Al-Daradji and his crew members were abducted from a Baghdad hospital by another group of gunmen who roughed them up before turning them over to the U.S. military, who held them in harsh conditions for six days on suspicion they were filming insurgent attacks for al-Qaida.

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For the 28-year-old Al-Daradji, just representing his country in the Oscar competition is a source of pride. His film portrays in often graphic images how the dreams of ordinary Iraqis "just to live as normal people, to study, get married and have children" are shattered, first by the brutality of Saddam's regime and later by the destruction brought on by the U.S. invasion in 2003.

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"But at the same time you feel for what your country is going through at this difficult time," he added. "It's very sad to say the human being in Iraq has become a number — the number of people dead, the number of people kidnapped, the number of people tortured and the number of people becoming refugees. ... It's like we lost the human element on these people and how they live and what they do and how they suffer. ... I feel it is quite important to tell the human story of the Iraqi people."

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And he would add: "As an Iraqi, of course, I wish that the American troops leave Iraq and Iraq becomes a free country. And at that time, I will invite all the American people to come visit Iraq as guests of honor."

more...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070112/ap_on_en_mo/film_iraqi_filmmaker_6