The most heartbreaking film. 

A 5.34 hour documentary, following the life of a family, the filmmaker’s family, before and after the Americans invade Iraq, in 2003.

I’m left stunned to the fact that I have never imagined the scale of the unending, cosmic injustice perpetrated from all directions on the people of this country. The Brits, Saddam, Bush, the Americans, they’re all a handfull of people in the end, ruining the lives of millions. Homeland is Iraq’s side of the story.

So goddamn frustrating to realise I’ve been brainwashed and plain ignorant for more than a decade, for never really caring for the ongoing slaughter of innocents in this country, for thinking it’s normal. I’m pathetic, there’s no other way to be.

Witnessing this family’s incredulous slow descent into the abyss in 2003, (one that hasn’t ended to this day!), reminded me of the (same) reaction Jews had in front of the gas chambers in Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah. They too didn’t believe it. If hope is a tool for surviving, it’s failing dramatically. 

Abbas Fahdel stopped filming his documentary when one night, Haidar - his 12 year old nephew and the family’s brightest star, got killed by an unknown group of gunmen. 

Haidar. Here’s a picture of him.