The Boys from Baghdad High

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The Boys from Baghdad High
Television news magazine
Directed byIvan O'Mahoney
Laura Winter
StarringHayder Khalid
Mohammad Raed
Anmar Refat
Ali Shadman
ComposersWill Worsley
Farhad Amirahmadi
Mounir Baziz
Country of origin
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • France[1]
Original languagesArabic with subtitles
English
Production
Executive producersAlan Hayling
Karen O'Connor
Hans Robert Eisenhauer
Sheila Nevins
ProducersIvan O'Mahoney
Laura Winter
Production locationsBaghdad, Iraq
EditorsRichard Guard
Johnny Burke
Camera setupsingle-camera
Running time90 minutes
Original release
Release8 January 2008 (2008-01-08)

The Boys from Baghdad High, also known as Baghdad High, is a British-American-French television documentary film. It was first shown in the United Kingdom at the 2007

video diary
. The documentary was filmed by the boys themselves, who were given video cameras for the project.

Directed and produced by Ivan O'Mahoney and Laura Winter of Renegade Pictures and StoryLabTV, for the United Kingdom's BBC, HBO in the United States, and the Franco-German network Arte, The Boys from Baghdad High was produced by Alan Hayling and Karen O'Connor for the BBC, Hans Robert Eisenhauer for Arte, and Sheila Nevins for HBO.[2]

The Boys from Baghdad High received high viewership when it initially aired in the UK, and was reviewed favourably in the media. It was named the Best News and Current Affairs Film at the European Independent Film Festival, won the Premier Prize at the

Sandford St. Martin Trust Awards, and was nominated for awards at two film festivals. The documentary also received the Radio Times Readers Award, and a nomination for the Amnesty International
2008 Television Documentary and Docudrama UK Media Award.

Synopsis

The film brings together the

Apache helicopters
overhead, and the deterioration of their neighbourhood which becomes rife with assassinations, muggings and kidnappings. Many of their fellow students, unmotivated and academically underperforming, are absent from school.

Ali Shadman is one of the few

Syriac Christian, tries to remain philosophical and hopes that armed gangs will not attack the school. His family, however, are more nervous about any nearby gunfire, as their Christian beliefs increase the threat to their lives if anyone were to find out about them. Anmar has a girlfriend, whom he can contact only via his mobile phone, but he has not heard from her in several days, leaving him worried about whether she has found another boyfriend, or has been hurt in the violence. Hayder Khalid, a Shia Muslim, hopes to become a famous singer-songwriter. He frequently downloads music videos of English-language pop music so he can learn popular English songs and dance moves. Mohammad Raed, a Sunni Muslim, is the class clown
at school, who prefers playing sports and fooling around with his friends to studying. Unaware of his behaviour at school, his mother believes he is hard-working, self-sufficient and mature, and believes he will graduate and go to university.

Halfway through the school year, Ali's family moves to the more peaceful

Kurdish region in Northern Iraq but after living there for several months, Ali says that he is homesick and misses the action and noise of Baghdad. Mohammad, feeling lonely, "adopts" a bird with a broken wing and a mouse he finds in the house. This brings him some comfort, but his mother later demands that he get rid of the mouse as she does not want "vermin" in the house. Mohammad's family rejoice when Saddam Hussein
is sentenced, and feel that his later execution was justified, as to do otherwise would have made the Iraqi people look weak. Conversely, Anmar's family is upset at his execution, as they feel that the people who came into power were no better than Hussein was. Hyder's mother says that many Iraqi people were hopeful about the arrival of American forces, and that it is wrong to blame America for all of the problems in Iraq. She notes that the bloodshed has yet to stop as the Sunni continues to kill the Shiite, and vice versa. As the film continues, Hyder's family loses its income and they start to sell their furniture to earn extra money.

At the end of the year, the boys must pass seven final exams to graduate. Anmar, Hyder and Ali each fail two subjects, and are given the option to retake the exams. Anmar passes the retakes and aspires to study English literature in college, and his family decide to move to the safer region of Arbul now that he has graduated. Hyder also retakes his exams and passes, but his family can no longer afford to pay for the university fees. Ali chooses not to retake the exams, and his family leave Iraq. Mohammad fails four subjects and must repeat his senior year. He chooses to do so at a different school while working at his uncle's scooter repair shop. As the documentary closes, it notes that during the year of filming, two of the boys' classmates were killed, six were kidnapped, and seventy-five left Iraq.

Production

Concept

The Boys from Baghdad High was co-produced and co-directed by Ivan O'Mahoney and Laura Winter. Before working on the film, O'Mahoney had been a

Daily News in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan and Iraq. The Boys from Baghdad High was the first time she was credited as a director.[5]

O'Mahoney and Winter began working on the film in 2006.

civil war and the deteriorating condition of the country.[8] When it was decided to use a school as a backdrop to the story, which could also be used to provide a chronological narrative,[9] O'Mahoney and Winter realised it would be too dangerous for the students to be seen with either a Western or Iraqi camera crew because it would draw too much attention to them,[8][10] and so they decided that the students would film the documentary themselves.[8]

Casting

Producers chose boys who were students of Tariq bin Ziad High School. The school was holding on to the notion of a united Iraq, even as the country was becoming increasingly racially and religiously segregated.[5] Having worked in Iraq in 2003, Winter knew that the Baghdad district Karrada was mixed and integrated with high numbers of Shiites and Christians. She asked her former driver and translator, who had attended the school, if he would contact the principal.[8] Initially the school was suspicious of their intentions, but decided to trust the judgement of Winter's translator. Principal Ra'ad Jawad selected eight boys to take part in the documentary because he knew they could be discreet about making the documentary,[11] would not get bored, and would remain committed to filming their lives for a year.[9] The producers wanted their cast to include girls, and had found a school and families willing to take part in the documentary, but the then-Minister of Education refused to let them take part.[6] Jawad travelled to London to meet the producers and he was trained to operate the video cameras that the boys were to use. The cameras and tapes were sent into Iraq via the BBC News department, which were then passed onto the school. Jawad and two Iraqi associate producers trained the boys how to use the cameras.[8][12] Two months into filming, four of the boys dropped out of the project,[12] leaving Hayder Khalid, Anmar Refat, Ali Shadman, and Mohammad Raed.[13] O'Mahoney and Winter never met the boys while the documentary was being produced because it was such a high-risk assignment.[14]

Filming

The producers were diligent in ensuring the boys' security. O'Mahoney explained: "They were under very strict security rules when they were filming. They were told not to act as news cameramen. They were not allowed to film in the street. They could only film at school or at home, in secure environments."[8] Winter added, "they are not paid news cameramen, and that was not the point of the film. Would they normally be running down the street toward a firefight to film it? No. Would they run toward a bombing, knowing that there could be a secondary explosion or a group of soldiers, who could start, at any second, firing wildly into the crowd, to film a piece of video? No. That's not real life for any Iraqi civilian."[6] Nevertheless, Hayder sometimes filmed outside at night, and explained to the camera that he had to be careful because people are robbed if they are seen carrying even a mobile phone. On New Year's Eve, he and his friend celebrate with a bonfire in his friend's back yard, but after debating whether a noise they hear is fireworks or gunfire, Hayder rushes home.[7] Another boy is driven to school one morning, and reach a special forces roadside checkpoint along the way. He explains, "if they see me with a camera they will take me to prison; they'll think I'm a terrorist who wants to bomb them."[15]

Editing

More than 300 hours of footage was recorded by the students and the two Iraqi associate producers.[7][16] It was transcribed, translated and edited into a 90-minute film.[5] Getting the tapes out of Iraq proved difficult for Winter and O'Mahoney, who remained in the UK. They had to rely on journalists from many news agencies, especially those in the BBC News's Baghdad Bureau high-risk team, to smuggle the tapes out of Iraq.[12] When curfews were enforced, weeks passed before the producers received new footage because it was impossible for anybody to leave their homes or the country.[8]

The execution of Saddam Hussein, which Anwar had filmed from the internet from start to finish, was excluded from the documentary. "We had a big debate about whether or not that should go into the film", O'Connor explained. Water continued, "it was one of those things where to see it, it just gets you. But we had to ask ourselves, does it help our story? No."[8] Footage that was nearly edited out included a scene where Anwar had to siphon petrol out of the family car for the house's generator. Anwar explained to the camera that he needed to do it because their family was so poor. "That's tough", commented Water, "because that's a dishonour to his family."[8]

Distribution

The Boys from Baghdad High received its world première at the 2007

visas to enter the UK for a screening in London, but they were denied entry by the British Government.[8]

It premièred on television in the UK on

CBC Newsworld,[23] and in the Netherlands on VPRO.[24]

The documentary was streamed online by the BBC using its BBC iPlayer service to UK residents for seven days after the initial broadcast.[25] A Region 2 DVD of the documentary can be obtained, although it can only be purchased directly from the BBC and is not available in stores.[26]

Critical reception

Reviews for The Boys from Baghdad High were generally favourable.

Time Out New York gave the film five out of five stars,[29] and PopMatters rated it 8 out of 10.[14] The Washington Post's Paul Farhi said, "HBO has carved a niche as the TV home of some of the most compelling programs about the Iraq war ... Baghdad High does no harm to HBO's burgeoning war cred[ibility]."[30] Variety,[31] The Christian Science Monitor,[32] LA Weekly,[33] and the Los Angeles Times also praised the film.[34] At the Question-and-Answer session following a screening at the Tribeca Film Festival, one audience member, a new recruit to the United States Marine Corps, told Ali, who had also attended, "I finally know what life is like behind those walls and what you guys are like, and it's been really, really fantastic."[12]

There were complaints, however, that the documentary did not depict enough of the political aspects of the Iraqi War. Farhi said, "The 90-minute documentary doesn't say much about the larger issues facing Iraq, but it does capture some small and captivating human stories.... They happen to live in what one boy describes as 'the most dangerous city on Earth.' You don't see much of Iraq's violence in Baghdad High, but you surely feel its gravity and their dread."

About.com, that while it was innovative, informative and a noble experiment, the footage is "undistinguished and rough because the hands holding the cameras weren't skilled and the eyes framing the shots were not those of artists or keen observers." She thought that, with the exception of Mohammad, the boys lacked charisma, and that the film failed to capture the drama of living in a war-zone, due to the lack of a director calling the shots.[36] Perigard said, "After the time you've invested [as a viewer], it's not nearly satisfying enough. For all the questions this fascinating film raises, it might as well be written in sand."[22][35]

"I think this film reflects on almost any place that is in the midst of a violent conflict. While militants are shooting at each other, blowing each other up and terrorizing the population to force their allegiance, people go on living. Kids try to go to school. Birthdays are celebrated. Teens hang out and dance to music. Exams are taken. All of these are normal things, all in the midst of incredible violence. Really this film is about the triumph of the collective human spirit."

—Laura Winter[6]

Many reviewers noted the similarities between the Iraqi boys and those from Western cultures. Peter Scarlet, the artistic director at the Tribeca Film Festival, said, "What's fascinating about the film that resulted is how very familiar and ordinary these kids are – they're not really all that different from your own teenagers or the kids you went to school with. The kids of Baghdad High also open us up to a very different sense of life in Iraq than what we've been seeing on the nightly news for five years."[5] The Huffington Post said, "previously it had been unfathomable that students in Baghdad might be experiencing the same ephemeral and narcissistic heartbreak as we are in the United States."[27] Farhi and Nicholls noticed that the Iraqi students do the same things as American high school students, such as listening to rap music, trying to study without distractions, playing sports, becoming stressed over their final exams and acting silly with their friends.[11][30] Perigard commented, "despite the cultural differences, Ali, Anmar, Hayder and Mohammad will seem instantly familiar to anyone who has spent time around a teenage boy. They like to wrestle each other, love Western music, dream big and have trouble buckling down in school."[35]

The New York magazine said that the film's premise of four high-school friends videotaping their senior year "sounds like a fluffy reality show";[37] Bill Weber of Slant Magazine said, "putting the trials of MTV reality-show prima donnas in perspective, the middle-class quartet will be relatable to this BBC/HBO production's audience in their easy embrace of Western kid stuff ... Directors Ivan O'Mahoney and Laura Winter balance [portray] an everyday sense of the adolescents' wartime anxiety with the more commonplace juvenile relief."[38] Similarly, The Huffington Post raised comparisons with MTV reality shows, but was pleased to see that the Iraqi boys did not play to the cameras because they had not been exposed to programmes such as Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County or The Paper.[27] That juvenile relief was commented on by many; The Washington Post highlighted Mohammad's adoption of an unwelcome mouse in the house.[30] Hale described a scene where Mohammad and Ali act like hostage and captor. "Suddenly Ali is holding a large knife. 'He's being naughty!' Mohammad says. Ali holds the knife near Mohammad and says, a little too unemotionally: 'Allah! This is the first hostage. I'm going to slaughter him this way.' Mohammad tells him to stop fooling around. Ali relents. 'O.K. He just got a presidential pardon. He can live'."[22] Reuters also commented on this, and more banter between Ali and Mohammad. "Ali is shown making a pretend hostage video with Mohammad, and then teasing his friend for his smelly feet. 'If Chemical Ali really wanted to destroy the north he should have fired a rocket with Mohammad's socks in it'."[11]

The depiction of the stark differences between Iraq and the Western world also received comments. Farhi described the school as having "all the charm of an abandoned prison", and continued with, "visiting a friend who lives a few hundred yards away involves running a potential gauntlet of kidnappers and snipers; getting to school on time means navigating military checkpoints. Before a big exam, teachers frisk their students for explosives,"

Daily News, Patrick Huguenin wrote, "American teens wouldn't recognize other scenes showing how life slips into a heavily regulated series of checkpoints and curfews."[7] Hale said, "The way the boys can tell without looking whether it's an Apache or a Chinook helicopter overhead, the way the curtains are always drawn, the level of physical contact and affection among the men ... would be alien to American sensibilities."[22]

Accolades

The Boys from Baghdad High was well-received from its initial screening. It was nominated for a Youth Jury Award at the 2007 Sheffield Doc/Fest,

Sandford St. Martin Trust Awards, which acknowledges excellence in religious broadcasting.[43] The Trust's chairman and former BBC Head of Religious Broadcasting Colin Morris said of the documentary, "We saw the way faith breaks into secular life in the chaos of present-day Iraq. Coming from different ethnic and religious backgrounds the boys showed that despite the war their daily preoccupations were much the same as those of teenage boys the world over – girlfriends, parents, sport, fashion, exams, music. Would their friendship survive? Ultimately the programme confronted British viewers with the question: 'What in God's name are we doing there?'"[44] The film received a standing ovation from the audience at the Traverse City Film Festival,[17] and at the Tribeca Film Festival it was short-listed for the 2008 World Documentary Feature Competition, competing against eleven other non-fiction films for Best Documentary Film and Best New Documentary Filmmaker.[45]

References

  1. ^ "This World: The Boys from Baghdad High". BFI Film & TV Database. London: British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 7 May 2009. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  2. ^ "Baghdad High Synopsis". HBO. 2008. Retrieved 12 April 2010.
  3. ^ "How To Plan A Revolution". BBC. 25 October 2006. Retrieved 5 August 2010.
  4. Tribeca Film Festival, HBO. 2008. p. 3. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 29 February 2012. Retrieved 12 April 2010.
  5. ^
    Tribeca Film Festival. Archived from the original
    on 10 April 2010. Retrieved 12 April 2010.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Stanton, Anne (27 April 2008). "Reading, Writing & Reality in Iraq". Northern Express Weekly. Northern Michigan. Archived from the original on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  7. ^
    Daily News
    . New York. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Baghdad High Directors Discuss Their Film From The Tribeca Film Fest". Star Pulse. 2 May 2008. Archived from the original on 6 May 2008. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  9. ^ a b "Tribeca '08 Interview – Baghdad High Co-Directors Ivan O'Mahoney and Laura Winter". IndieWire. 29 April 2008. Retrieved 12 April 2010.
  10. ^ a b Ownes, Dodie (3 September 2008). ""Iraq Is Full of Cool Kids" – Ivan O'Mahoney, Baghdad High". School Library Journal. Archived from the original on 29 February 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  11. ^ a b c Nichols, Michelle (1 August 2008). "Life, Love, Music, Smelly Socks at Baghdad High". Reuters. New York. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  12. ^ a b c d "Interview With Ivan O'Mahoney & Laura Winter". HBO. 2008. Retrieved 12 April 2010.
  13. ^
    Reed Business Information
    . Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  14. ^ a b Fuchs, Cynthia (4 August 2008). "Baghdad High". PopMatters. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  15. ^ "Sexual Healing". The Northern Echo. Darlington, County Durham: Newsquest. 1 August 2008. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  16. ^ a b "SBS Sydney Schedule: Tuesday 1st July, 2008". Special Broadcasting Service. July 2008. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  17. ^ a b c "Video: Standing Ovation for Baghdad High". Traverse City Record-Eagle. 4 August 2008. Archived from the original on 1 February 2013. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  18. ^ "School Life Amid Baghdad's Bombing". BBC News. 8 January 2008. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  19. ^ Holmwood, Leigh (9 January 2008). "TV ratings – 8 January: Mistresses Wins Slot for BBC1". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  20. France Soir (in French). Paris. p. 18. Archived from the original
    on 21 March 2008. Retrieved 12 April 2010.
  21. ^ Braun, Rainer (18 March 2008). "Schwindende Hoffnungen". Berliner Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 24 February 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  22. ^ a b c d e Hale, Mike (4 August 2008). "Girls, Gunfire and Despair: Senior Year for 4 Iraqi Boys". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  23. CBC Newsworld
    . 10 March 2008. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  24. ^ "The Boys from Baghdad (Aankoop)" (in Dutch). VPRO. 2008. Retrieved 12 April 2010.
  25. ^ "This World, The Boys From Baghdad High". BBC Online. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  26. ^ "This World FAQs". BBC Online. 16 May 2006. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  27. ^ a b c Weiner, Juli (4 August 2008). "Bombs Over Baghdad". HuffPost. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  28. Independent News & Media
    . Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  29. Time Out New York
    .
  30. ^ a b c d e Farhi, Paul (3 August 2008). "Baghdad High: A Study of Life in War's Shadow". The Washington Post. p. M.01. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  31. ^ Elley, Derek (18 December 2007). "The Boys From Baghdad High". Variety. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  32. ^ Shaer, Matthew (25 April 2008). "Fast Times at Baghdad High". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  33. ^ Abele, Robert (29 July 2008). "War-Zone Teens: HBO's Baghdad High". LA Weekly. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  34. ^ Lloyd, Robert (4 August 2008). "Review: Baghdad High". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  35. ^ a b c d Perigard, Mark A. (4 August 2008). "Baghdad High Teaches Cultural Lessons". Boston Herald. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  36. About.com. Archived from the original
    on 12 April 2009. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  37. ^ "Baghdad High: You Can Imagine the Drama. Or Can You?". New York. 4 August 2008. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  38. ^ Weber, Bill (23 April 2008). "Baghdad High". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  39. ^ Soutar, Ian (29 October 2007). "Awards take a bow at Sheffield Doc/Fest". Sheffield Telegraph. Johnston Press. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  40. ^ "2008 Media Awards Winners and Shortlist". Amnesty International. 24 June 2008. Archived from the original on 2 July 2009. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  41. ^ "ÉCU 2008 Award Winners". European Independent Film Festival. 2008. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  42. ^ "StorylabTV Awards/Honors". StoryLabTV. 2008. Archived from the original on 5 August 2010. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  43. Sandford St. Martin Trust. 2008. Archived from the original
    on 20 September 2011. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  44. ^ Dowell, Ben (22 May 2008). "BBC's Boys for Baghdad High Scoops TV Religious Award". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  45. Tribeca Film Festival. 11 March 2008. Archived from the original
    on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 12 April 2010.

External links

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