Return To Kirkuk – A Year In The Fire (Documentary/Politics)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Documentary: B
Karzan
Sherabayani was arrested and almost killed three decades ago when Saddam
Hussein’s flunkies picked him up at only 14 years old and only just for being
Kurdish. He was tortured and barely
escaped after an ugly deal that set him free.
Return To Kirkuk – A Year In The
Fire (2006) is his 90-minute mediation on survival, the exploitation of
Iraq, his people, a potential civil war that turned into one and the chaos that
continues as this posts over oil, wealth, power and ethnic hatred.
Sherabayani
takes us on a very personal journey and shows us Kirkuk as a great place with
great people caught in the middle of two religious wars (three factions of
Islam, plus Christo-Fascism vs. Islamo-Fascism) plus the desire to gets its oil
on the cheap when it should be turning his country into a beacon of democracy
in The Middle East to rival others. But
in true Syriana mode, everything
people in power can do wrong to keep things as they are and people who deserve
better in “their place” as he documents a people to long neglected.
When the
Kurds were gassed after the first President Bush told them to rise against
Hussein, they got zero support and it was a disaster. One woman asked who their friends were and
why did they not have any friends. With
an ineffective U.N. to boot, it is time for them to get real support that puts
them before their oil. The only question
left is if it is too late. If the will
is there among many worldwide, maybe not.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image was shot in digital video and sometime
adds lesser low def analog video here and there. At its best, there is image shimmering while
color and depth are not consistent. The
Dolby Digital 2.0 has simple stereo at best in various languages and despite
some flawed location audio, the voiceover narration is good. There are no extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
