International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies - Volume 10, Issue 3, 2016

In the midst of the Iran‒Iraq war of the early 1980s, the Iraqi Film Institute produced one of the most expensive films in the history of Arab cinema, and certainly the most ambitious film projects in Iraqi cinema history. Al Qadisiyya (Salah Abu Seif, 1981), depicted the victory of Arab Muslim leader Saad Ibin Abi Waqqas in a battle with the Persian army fought in the year 636 ce. The battle signalled a watershed in Arab Muslim history, paving the road for their later expansion through North Africa, Spain, and across South Asia. The film presents a key example of how Arab political discourse at the time began to advocate an Arab alliance in the face of an assumed existential and growing Iranian threat. This article discusses how the pan-Arab discourse of Al Qadisiyya both complements and parts with chauvinistic interpretations of Arab nationalism at the time. In the same breadth, the paper considers how various discursive thematic and textual elements within the film also inform subsequent and more current shifts in regional hegemonic politics. As such, the article describes precursor signifiers of shifts from anti-colonial/anti-imperialist nationalist discourse, to sectarian-based Shiite/Sunni approximation of the Arab/Iran relationship.

During the 1950–70s, film production in Iraq was relatively prolific. Private industry eventually gave way to nationalization under Ba‘th Party rule. Not unlike Iraqi cinema of the colonial era, most post-independence Iraqi cinema had the ideological aim of propping up the new regime while supplying light entertainment to the populace. A minor auteur cinema did develop, which produced a small number of critical independent films, but the movement was short-lived. The bulk of quality film production in Iraq occurred during the period of nationalization. This development eventually led to the establishment of a film school in Baghdad. Since the Iran–Iraq War, national film production in Iraq effectively ended. This is not to say that films publicized as ‘Iraqi’ have not been produced in recent years; on the contrary, a small but noteworthy number of ‘Iraqi’ films have been made, primarily for international distribution, largely by Iraqi ex-patriots to (and from) Europe and with financial support from private foreign sources. This article discusses two such films, Zaman: The Man from the Reeds (Alwan, 2003), and Ahlaam (al-Daradji, 2006), comparing and contrasting their differing but overlapping strategies, which evidence the suffering of Iraqis living under conditions of war and violence. These strategies at the same time in varying ways distract or distort attention from the real determinants of those conditions. By extension the article draws critical connections between the aims and orientations of new ‘Iraqi’ cinema and the hasbara cultural initiatives of contemporary Israel.

This article engages the complex intermingling of imagery, ideology and history as it emerges within the sub-genre we might describe as the ‘post-9/11 Iraq War Film’. Taking as my focus Katheryn Bigelow’s Hurt Locker and Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper, I ask, first, why these films garnered large audiences (in contrast to the genre as a whole) and why, moreover, American Sniper became such a mega-hit. In narrowing my examination to these two films, I propose to examine the interplay of subjectivity and the cinematic screen, asking what position these films place the spectator in and how we might understand this in terms of screen history and violence in general as well as the specificity of the war and its visual frame in particular. Further issues that arise in the juxtaposition of these two films include: the issue of gender (as it applies to the representation of both Iraqi and American protagonists and to both films directors: Hurt Locker was the first film directed by a woman to garner an Academy Award); issues arising out of the long relationship between the camera and the gun historically, and today, as it has found its most deadly incarnation in the military drone, and, finally, the broader contours of official discourse as it is solidified (or not) within these films and the sub-genre as a whole.

This article claims that the visual image contributes to, reflects and supports the dominant discourse of two powerful armed groups that have operated in Iraq: the US military and the Islamic State. The article claims that in the current postmodern climate of mass media and Internet communications, the visual image – allied to oral communication – has transcended the power of the mere spoken or written word: as a result of its emotional impact. This article explores three crucial insights into the ideological power of the visual image – the framing or interpretation of responsibilities and violence in media production, the power of the image as spectatorship based on emotion and spectacle, and the sublime or transcendental nature of the visual image – concluding that Islamic State recruitment clips and news reports best capture the concept of the sublime, drowning the audience in mystery, horror and guilt.

The ongoing war in Iraq since 1990, which led to the total destruction and collapse of its social, physical, cultural, economic and political institutions, may be divided into three main periods: the sanctions period (1990–2003); the direct Anglo-American occupation period (2003–11); and the post-2011 period. From 1990 to 2003, Iraq underwent severe economic and political sanctions, which caused the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians. However, conditions deteriorated after 2003, leading to more casualties among civilians. Furthermore, a substantial rise in terrorism affected Iraq directly and impacted the wider Middle East region, leaving the country at dangerous crossroads. This article attempts to answer the following questions: What were the main reasons behind the American invasion and occupation of Iraq? Why were the Americans keen on destroying the state of Iraq? This process raises further questions: What is the impact of the Iraqi conflict on the Middle East region? Wither Iraq and the region in the next few years?

Iraq in the Twenty-First Century: Regime Change and the Making of a Failed State, Tareq Y. Ismael and Jacqueline S. Ismael (2015) London and New York: Routledge, xvii + 310 pp., ISBN-10: 1138831336, ISBN-13: 978-1138831339, h/bk, US$108