There are some striking images, but the film is less useful for not having any commentary on the confused events depicted.
Comment
01/27/07
Iraq in Fragments (2006)
91 %
Reviews Counted: 65 Fresh: 59 Rotten:6 Average Rating: 7.6/10
Consensus:
A stylistically bold, humanist take on the difficulties of post-invasion Iraq.
Runtime: 2 hrs 41 mins
Theatrical Release: 19-01-2007
Synopsis: Iraq In Fragments illuminates post-war Iraq in three acts, building a vivid picture of a country pulled in different directions by religion and ethnicity. Filmed in cinema verité style, the film powerfully explores the lives of ordinary Iraqis: people whose thoughts, beliefs,... [More]
Genre: Education/General Interest
Director: James Longley
Reviews
Watch the evening news and you get a view of Iraq from high above the wreckage. In this fascinating doc, director James Longley shows us how things look on the ground.
01/27/07
Top Critic
In a series of stunningly filmed sequences, Longley and his camera seek out the real lives outside the frame of conventional TV news, and he succeeds in creating both compelling journalism and superb images.
01/20/07
Top Critic
There’s something of a period quality to this beautifully photographed documentary snapshot of Iraq in transition.
01/16/07
Top Critic
What makes Iraq In Fragments so distinctive is its impressionistic and at times lyrical imagery.
01/15/07
A work of beauty as well as horror, Iraq In Fragments is one of the best of the many documentaries to come out of that ruined country. It's powerful, enlightening and necessarily depressing.
01/15/07
Top Critic
Shot over three years, this is one of the more considered and insightful Iraqi documentaries - although some may find its stylistic contrasts a little self-conscious and distracting.
01/15/07
Top Critic
Visually, the director's flair is impressive. But Longley's clear intention of using children's faces to better tug at our heartstrings would be more admirable if it didn't feel as shamelessly staged.
03/06/08
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04/07/07
Too bad James Longley couldn't have broadcast this insightful documentary immediately after he shot it in 2003 and 2004.
04/06/07
Bafflingly, the threats in an occupied country consistently come from within, not without or overhead: what has the effect of the US occupation and Hussein's vicious rule been on these people? Offers a fragmented, obscuring picture of Iraq.
04/01/07
Iraq in Fragments ... appears to be asking a simple, but often unmentioned, question: Oh yeah, what about the people of Iraq?
03/30/07
A timely, lyrical and candid look at daily life in a post-invasion Iraq.
03/20/07
The technique is more expressionistic than naturalistic, but it makes the film far more vivid and emotionally satisfying.
03/17/07
The film is terrific at providing a kaleidoscopic sense of life unfolding, with imaginative editing and colors that seem to leap off the screen.
03/16/07
The film is both gritty and lyrical, showing how tanks share the Baghdad streets with donkeys as well as the quiet beauty of the Kurdish countryside.
03/08/07
What Iraq in Fragments lacks in fresh reportage or sending a political message, it makes up for with unique insight.
03/01/07
Because [director] Longley uses a technique that forgoes interviews and voiceover commentary in favour of observation and revealing juxtapositions, his movie puts you both in the chaos and just above it.
02/24/07
[An] evocative, heartbreaking documentary told from three disparate but equally compelling perspectives: the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
02/23/07
Stands up as a classic war documentary, in its unusual poetic form and by its extraordinary access to the lives of ordinary Iraqis.
02/23/07
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