Fact meets fiction in this road movie about Saddam Hussein's personal cameraman. Forced to flee from Iraq, his journey to London exposes the absurdities and brutality of the Iraqi regime. Baghdad in the early 2000s: passed from one smuggler to the next, Sadik traverses several countries, hoping to join his wife in London. He is haunted by scenes that he filmed in the course of his work and the disappearance of his own son. Director Koutaiba Al-Janabi weaves together actual footage from Saddam Hussein’s own archive, with footage shot by the fictional Sadik. LEAVING BAGHDAD is a stunningly fresh take on the documentary form, mixing a powerful character study of a man slipping into paranoia with a potent indictment on the trauma inflicted by Saddam Hussein’s reign. (Raindance Film Festival - Dean Bowman)
Drama, Independent
1h 27min
16+
AR
DE
EN
The story of Saddam Hussein's personal cameraman exposes the absurdities and brutality of the Iraqi dictators regime.
Fact meets fiction in this road movie about Saddam Hussein's personal cameraman. Forced to flee from Iraq, his journey to London exposes the absurdities and brutality of the Iraqi regime.
Baghdad in the early 2000s: passed from one smuggler to the next, Sadik traverses several countries, hoping to join his wife in London. He is haunted by scenes that he filmed in the course of his work and the disappearance of his own son. Director Koutaiba Al-Janabi weaves together actual footage from Saddam Hussein’s own archive, with footage shot by the fictional Sadik.
LEAVING BAGHDAD is a stunningly fresh take on the documentary form, mixing a powerful character study of a man slipping into paranoia with a potent indictment on the trauma inflicted by Saddam Hussein’s reign. (Raindance Film Festival - Dean Bowman)