New Delhi

Giving a voice to the missing voices

Mandira Nayar

NEW DELHI: Iraq's first feature film after the fall of Saddam Hussein, "Underexposure'', does not take "sides". Shooting with an ancient camera on outdated film stock with very little footage of bombs and men with guns, director Oday Rasheed has chosen to make an emotional point rather than a political one.

Bringing alive on screen a city in the middle of a war, the film captures the story that newspapers and television channels can never hope to do — talk about a "lost" city. A visual diary of the director, the film goes behind the stories of casualties and talks about a city that is caught in a world in flux.

"I spent 31years of my life in Baghdad. I saw my city bombed. The film helped me get through my pain. I was in shock and I made the film to restore my balance. It is a very personal film and I never hoped to make a career of it. I have lost my city in the hands of occupational forces and it is so painful that I can't talk about it,'' he says.

Filming "emptiness'' with bombed out hotels, homes and tanks, "Underexposure'' captures people who are stuck in a city that they no longer own.

The film does not adhere to a linear story line and makes the audience think and feel at the same time. It has been screened at several festivals before its recent screening at "Osian's Cinefan: Festival of Asian Cinema" here in Delhi.

"Iraqis who saw it in Rotterdam had interesting reactions. While some of them loved it, there were Iraqis who wanted me to talk about the oppression in Saddam's regime. I told them that was not my mission,'' asserts Rasheed.

The only film from the Arab region to have escaped "official censorship", "Underexposure'' is an interesting movie for other reasons than just that. It puts forward voices that have been missing from the discourse on Iraq other than the "stereotypical" quotes on the situation.

"I have lived in Baghdad during the time of Saddam's regime and we lost a lot during that time. But what we are losing now under the Occupation is much worse and much more effective. There is so much radical thought that is very bad for a secular society like ours was. People are being brainwashed,'' says Rasheed.

While it marks the beginning of independent voices in the country, Rasheed fears that it will not necessarily encourage young filmmakers to tell their story.

"There is great emphasis on making documentaries at the moment. There is a lot of money being offered for such stuff. I think many young filmmakers will want to do just that because they will make money,'' remarks Rasheed.

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