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A stylistically bold, humanist take on the difficulties of post-invasion Iraq.
All Critics (65) | Top Critics (30) | Fresh (59) | Rotten (6) | DVD (3)
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. Mar 8, 2007 | Rating: B
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.
Eleanor Ringel Cater
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. Feb 24, 2007 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…
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.
Geoff Pevere
Stands up as a classic war documentary, in its unusual poetic form and by its extraordinary access to the lives of ordinary Iraqis. Feb 23, 2007 | Rating: 3.5/4
Stands up as a classic war documentary, in its unusual poetic form and by its extraordinary access to the lives of ordinary Iraqis.
Liam Lacey
Iraq in Fragments sometimes feels random, but it is a well-crafted, thoughtful study of the dueling divisiveness and hope that will define the region long after foreign troops leave. Feb 23, 2007 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…
Iraq in Fragments sometimes feels random, but it is a well-crafted, thoughtful study of the dueling divisiveness and hope that will define the region long after foreign troops leave.
John Monaghan
James Longley's devastating documentary Iraq in Fragments has neither narration nor obvious political ax to grind, but it manages to tell us something about Iraq that we aren't getting or can't get from standard news coverage. Feb 22, 2007 | Rating: 4/5
James Longley's devastating documentary Iraq in Fragments has neither narration nor obvious political ax to grind, but it manages to tell us something about Iraq that we aren't getting or can't get from standard news coverage.
Richard Nilsen
By turns tender and shocking, Iraq in Fragments strikes a rare balance between impromptu fluidity and feature-film narrative control, in the process resisting both partisanship and predigested points of view. Feb 17, 2007 | Rating: 5/6 | Full Review…
By turns tender and shocking, Iraq in Fragments strikes a rare balance between impromptu fluidity and feature-film narrative control, in the process resisting both partisanship and predigested points of view.
Mark Holcomb
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. Mar 6, 2008
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.
Tricia Olszewski
Too bad James Longley couldn't have broadcast this insightful documentary immediately after he shot it in 2003 and 2004. Apr 6, 2007 | Rating: 3/4
Too bad James Longley couldn't have broadcast this insightful documentary immediately after he shot it in 2003 and 2004.
Sean P. Means
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. Apr 1, 2007
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.
Brian Gibson
Iraq in Fragments ... appears to be asking a simple, but often unmentioned, question: Oh yeah, what about the people of Iraq? Mar 30, 2007 | Rating: 3/4
Iraq in Fragments ... appears to be asking a simple, but often unmentioned, question: Oh yeah, what about the people of Iraq?
Larry Ratliff
A timely, lyrical and candid look at daily life in a post-invasion Iraq. Mar 20, 2007 | Rating: A- | Full Review…
A timely, lyrical and candid look at daily life in a post-invasion Iraq.
Dennis Schwartz
The technique is more expressionistic than naturalistic, but it makes the film far more vivid and emotionally satisfying. Mar 17, 2007 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review…
The technique is more expressionistic than naturalistic, but it makes the film far more vivid and emotionally satisfying.
Marrit Ingman
Early on in James Longley’s astonishingly breathtaking Iraq in Fragments, a man sitting in a rubble-strewn street is heard to utter “If it’s like this in the beginning-what will it be in the end?” Moments such as these, burned into the mind’s eye thanks to Longley’s vibrant photography, make this film more than memorable—it becomes eternal. The cinematography, editing, and music of Iraq in Fragments (all by the hand of Longley) help to make this whole package pure poetry. Shot over two years by American Langley, Iraq in Fragments is an opus offering a trio of separate passionate portraits: “Monhammed of Baghdad” follows a fatherless boy apprenticed to a domineering garage owner; “Sadr’s South” chronicles Sadr followers rallying for regional elections even while they still enforce Islamic law with violent force; “Kurdish Spring” tells the story of a Kurdish farming family welcoming the U.S. presence because it has offered them freedoms they never knew. Giving absorbing visage into the war-torn and not the actual war, this documentary unfolds these three engaging chapters that, taken together, form a prescient Greek Chorus giving voice to the Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds alike. Just as in America, however, the voice is resounding, but rarely harmoniously unified. Though An Inconvenient Truth walked away with top honors at the Academy Awards, this accomplishment by no means bested Iraq in Fragments, which was also nominated. In a time dominated by many dire issues, some rise to the top of the public consciousness through politicking. Others stand on their own revelatory merits. Bottom line: A resounding voice that must be heard.
Super Reviewer
Not the view of the war that you generally get from newscasts, this documentary takes us into peoples' homes to find out how Iraq's inhabitants lead their day to day existence as political turmoil rages around them. I am surprised that people can remain calm in such circumstances.
I wasn't as impressed with this movie as I thought I would be. It pretty much just reinforces my belief that invading and occupying Iraq was one of the worst things we could do and that religion, ALL RELIGION, is crazy.
[font=Century Gothic]"Iraq in Fragments" is a revealing documentary in three parts about the three main peoples of Iraq - the Sunnis of Baghdad, the Shias of the South and the Kurds - chronicled from the perspective of the citizens, most memorably from 11 year old Mohammed in Baghdad. Each group reacts differently to the fall of Saddam Hussein and the American invasion. Baghdad seems ambivalent; the Shias having been repressed for decades now are rising in power and militancy while the Kurds rejoice simply in their new freedom. But they all unite in one wish - the end of the American occupation.(Some voice the opinion that the Americans invaded Iraq for oil.) Also seen are the reactions towards democracy and the revelation that it will not solve all of the country's problems. [/font]
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