Operation Filmmaker (2008)

Veteran documentary filmmaker Nina Davenport parses an ill-conceived experiment in cross-cultural understanding that began with the best intentions.

The whole film could be seen a metaphor for America's misadventures in Iraq: Schreiber and company came in expecting flowers and sweets from a grateful native, and wound up in a quagmire.

The film's parallels between Mohmed's travails and the Iraq war are forced, but overall this is a fascinating odyssey that never plays out in ways you would expect.

As the story of an exasperating, manipulative, lazy and entitled young man, it’s one for the books.

A blunt, bitterly ironic snapshot of cultural misinterpretation and personal hubris, Nina Davenport’s Operation Filmmaker slyly plumbs the motivations of indie Hollywood do-goodism for uncomfortable parallels to blinkered neocon nation-building.

Despite the dubious moral of the film and on-the-fly camera technique, it is interesting to watch the pathetic story unfold.

Engaging, provocative, and often discomforting, Operation Filmmaker reveals increasing tensions between Muthana and his would-be benefactors, including filmmaker Nina Davenport.