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Editor's Note
Remarkable, gritty, and unforgettable, this documentary--the winner of three major awards at Sundance--examines the realities of daily life in modern war-torn Iraq in three acts, spanning religious and ethnic differences. The first segment follows an orphaned 11-year-old apprenticed to a tough auto mechanic in the center of Baghdad; the second focuses on fundamentalist Shiite politics, their militia's enforcement of Islamic law, and their violent conflict with U.S. troops; and the third observes a Kurdish family and community beginning to explore its newfound freedoms and troubles.
| Features | American director James Longley spent more than two years filming in Iraq to create this stunningly photographed, poetically rendered documentary of the war-torn country as seen through the eyes of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. Winner of Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Editing awards in the 2006 Sundance Film Festival documentary competition, the film was also awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the 2006 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, was named Best Documentary at the Chicago International Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Documentary at the 2007 Academy Awards. |
| Source: Typecast Films |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
|  | Studio: Pathfinder Home Entertainment |
| Release Date: 2/10/2009 |
| Running Time: 94 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2006 | | Catalog ID: 2001 | | UPC: 00643519200167 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: Kurdish | | Available Audio Tracks: Arabic, English, Kurdish | | Available Subtitles: English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | Box Office
"The imagery is poetic and beautiful at times. Meanwhile, the film's haunting legacy is that people still are being pulled apart by religious differences and ethnicities." 11/01/2006 p.114Entertainment Weekly
"Working with verite patience and no scripted narration, Longley looks and listens, with nonjudgmental sensitivity....The calm poetry of the cinematography offsets the mess of the politics to stunning effect." -- Grade: A 11/17/2006 p.102 Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "[W]hat makes IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS so distinctive is its impressionistic and at times lyrical imagery." 02/01/2007 p.41 Sight and Sound
"[Longley] is already a virtuoso craftsman....The cumulative effect of his three interlinked studies of life in the new Iraq is quietly devastating." 02/01/2007 p.62 New York Times
"Mr. Longley uses the grainy, smeared palette of digital video to create vivid, haunting tableaus of urban and rural Iraq." 02/23/2007 p.E20 |
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