Purely Joyful Movie!

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Yunis, the freelance Iraqi journalist who tells this story, had been imprisoned and tortured by one of Saddam Hussein's sons, so he was no friend of that regime. When America starts dropping its bombs and raiding houses, he sets out to document what is happening to his country, courageously venturing out into the mayhem and photographing the disintegration of his country. He goes to the wedding of a friend, his brother fires off celebratory shots in the air, and soon after American military soldiers have broken into his home, capturing Yunis and his brothers at gunpoint and frightening his elderly father and mother. This marks the beginning of a Kafkaesque encounter with military detention. His protestations of innocence do not convince anybody who is in power to release him, although an American soldier who is functioning as a guard at Abu Ghraib forms a bond with him, and they develop a mutual respect. Yunis settles into prison life, eating worm-infested food, sleeping in a tent, living in squalor, and surviving various riots by disgruntled prisoners, most who appear to be in much the same situation as Yunis -- innocent people who have been swept up by indiscriminate military operations. He begins working as an interpreter and at one point is instrumental in quelling a riot. He tries to make his adjustments to this nightmarish existence, and he finds various ways to do something constructive in that context. In this crazy setting no good deed can go unpunished, and he is transfered to the most restrictive part of Abu Ghraib, where he is interrogated and accused of plotting with his brothers to kill Tony Blair! After nine months of captivity he is finally released, the prison camp commander tells him he is no longer a suspect, and he is given an apology for his imprisonment. Yunis goes back to his family with his brothers. There he feels as though he is in a dream, expecting to wake up still imprisoned. This is a disturbing film. It shows American soldiers carrying out operations in a foreign country that destroy people's lives because of the folly of their judgments. It shows American military incarcerating innocent people in very dehumanizing conditions. This Iraqi journalist is trapped in this very strange world --it feels like being held under water. Yunis has experienced it from both sides -- malicious brutality from the regime of Saddam Hussein and then again from the occupying forces of United States. Does America descend to the moral equivalent of the regime they overthrew? This documentary seems to suggest so, although there is some redemption through the voice of one American guard, who describes his experiences in Abu Ghraib and his attempts to bring some sanity to that insane situation. I would have liked subtitles when Yunis is speaking. His English is certainly understandable, but at times it is a struggle.

An expanded version of this Kafkaesque film screened today at the SXSW Film Festival. The film, a spin off from Tucker and Epperstein's earlier Iraq film, Gunner Palace, tells the story of an ordinary Iraqi arrested and held at Abu Gharib for no apparent reason. Yunnis Abbas is an articulate English-speaking Iraqi journalist - who was once imprisoned and tortured by one of Saddam's sons - is arrested during a raid one night, along with 3 of his brothers, for no apparent reason. He is interrogated and held for 9 months and then suddenly released. There is no expalnation for his detention under awful conditions in an outdoor tent complex at Abu Gharib. There is no evidence beyond a vague and unsubstantiated accusation that he is somehow involved in a plot to kill British Prime Minister Tony Blair.The film tells a story that Americans need to hear. It is one of thousands of such human tales that occur every day in American-occupied Iraq. This story of the injustice done to a single man is a microcosm of the insane nature, brutality, and intelligence failures that have come to typify the war in Iraq. The surreal nature of American soldiers chasing shadows of terrorists is plain to see. While there have been many good films about the Iraq War, this one does an excellent job of humanizing the cost so that Americans can see the destructive and incompetent nature of the human tragedy playing out in Iraq. The film is stark and disturbing to watch with touches of dark humor.The version screened here at SXSW has been significantly expanded to 72 minutes from the 54 minute version that screened in Toronto. The director has added an extended interview with a recently discharged US soldier (Thompson) who guarded Yassin Abbas in Abu Gharib. His presence adds a human element to the American presence. It shows that while many individual soldiers are competent, well-intentioned, and humane, the American presence has become a self-destructive nightmare.This film should be widely viewed by Americans, particularly those who believe that we are succeeded in winning the "War on Terror" through our continued presence in Iraq.

I just saw the film at a sneak preview screening in New York where we did not know what we were seeing. It's not the kind of film I would normally see, but I found that Mr. Abbas' story opened my eyes to what average Iraqis have suffered in this war. More, his story--and the charges against him--would be extremely funny if were not for the fact that they are true. Yes, US intelligence thought he was plotting to kill Tony Blair. How they thought he was supposed to do that (the only evidence they found was a bottle of shampoo!) is beyond me. The real shocker in the film is just how bad the conditions in Abu Ghraib were. The army admits now that up to 80% of the 1000s of prisoners there were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I also agree with the previous poster that the comic imagery is a surprise, but it does work. The whole story reads like a comedy of errors--complete with cartoonish villains.

I wholeheartedly agree with the review by 'pm-84' above. Who cares how many innocent Iraqis have to be treated sub-humanly and imprisoned for months on end? So long as Iraq is safe for Tony Blair to visit for a few hours when he feels like it, the war has been a success. The film focuses on the imprisonment of Iraqi journalist Yunis Abbas, after his family home is raided by US forces who have received intelligence that Yunis is planning to bomb Tony Blair. As 'pm-84' correctly points out, however, the real victim is Tony Blair. Everywhere Tony Blair goes, there may be people who want to do him harm. How are we to know who those people are until we imprison them for 9 months?Despite their highlighting of the dangers faced by our brave Leaders, the filmmakers erred in showing sympathy to the enemy in a time of war, so for this I docked them one mark. 9/10.