Sunday, November 4, 2007

Operation Filmmaker

This intriguing documentary about good intentions gone wrong is about Muthana Mohamed, a young Iraqi film student, who has been given a golden opportunity to escape the war and be part of actor/director Liev Schreiber's film (Everything is Illuminated) in Prague. The film raises questions about the film maker's responsibility to "real" people in general in this age of reality shows when people sign away their rights to be part of the Hollywood dream.
After his stint as a PA, Muthana is expected to return to Iraq but as the situation in Iraq worsens, he decides to stay without any money to everybody's obvious disappointment of an Hollywood ending . The cast and crew return to Hollywood without any consideration or responsibility for the young man except for Nina Davenport who was there to document his journey. Davenport, a filmmaker with a dilemma, tries her best to give an honest portrayal but it gets fuzzier the longer she stays with him waiting for an ending to her film like Capote did for "In Cold Blood".
After all the films, Muthana still has to deal with his life while he's staying in the UK as there's no end in sight for his country's plight. YRCinema's coverage of AFI Fest 2007.

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