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Operation Filmmaker
Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(from the 2008 AFI Dallas International Film Festival)
Director: Nina Davenport
Starring: Muthana Mohmed, Liev Schreiber, Elijah Wood, Peter Saraf, Nina Davenport, The Rock
Operation Filmmaker begins with an admirable premise, but it is not long before it descends to exasperation - you can almost immediately hear the collective sighs from all involved as the filmmakers ponder their exercise in futility, compare it to the entire war in Iraq, and resign themselves to politically problematic exit strategies.
Actor/director Liev Schreiber, while preparing to direct Everything is Illuminated, saw a video sent to MTV by a film student in Iraq in which the student expresses his dream to be involved in Hollywood's film industry. With the opportunity and generosity at his disposal, Liev invites the student, Muthana, to Prague, where he is integrated into the film set's family, including documentary film director Nina Davenport who is on board to document the exercise. Within the shooting of a film about cultural divide, this was the perfect opportunity to bridge another - for a couple of Jewish American filmmakers to reach out to an Iraqi and provide him with possibilities.
It becomes clear, however - and quickly - that Muthana is not only not used to the on-set chores (he admits that to date he's been taken care of by his mother), but he is unable to hide his feelings that certain tasks (e.g. making copies, mixing snacks) are beneath him. |
Muthana continues to act with arrogance, and fails to ingratiate himself to the bigwigs on the shoot. Frustrated, Muthana admits his loneliness and lost-ness, despite being set up in one of the best areas of Prague, in a great apartment far from the violence of home. With a questionable work ethic, even the most important of tasks, tasks that involve Muthana specifically in creative endeavors, go not only uncompleted but almost uninitiated. It seems that Muthana would prefer to be in front of the camera than behind it.
While Muthana wastes the chances he's being offered by a variety of different industry people on set, the contrast of the situation of those left behind in Iraq is documented to interesting effect. Cameras sent to Muthana's film student buddies in Iraq cover the "normal life" that Muthana would have been living had he remained, a world with interruptions to electricity, with very little access to equipment, and where former screening rooms look like Habitat for Humanity's works in progress.
Even with his peer's communications and support for Muthana to stay away from Baghdad and pursue their collective dreams, Muthana seems to do little more than construct lies and ask for favors and freebies. He expects everything to be done for him, and most of the people involved, at one point or another, indulge his impositions. From work situations to visa efforts, every move that Muthana makes flows in favor of the easy route, the paths of least resistance. Even Kouross, Muthana's friend who filmed the original MTV piece, quits the project, an obvious casualty of seeing his faith in another, fueled by a desire to create something powerful and momentous, wasted.
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In spite of himself, his exhibition of a lack of discipline and the apparent absence of respect for others, Muthana continues to be rewarded by others who want to help, who see in Muthana a hopeful future, who impose their will on his situation, who want to help give effect to this kid with the potential to prevail over a perilous predicament.
Oh... it seemed like a good idea at the time.
And while the film is painful for its process, it's also invaluable as a tool for other documentary filmmakers, and fantastically engaging to viewers more used to seeing a story founded on facts which would ordinarily result in some sort of a success - whether it be in the participation of an event or a personal journey in which some lesson is learned, some craft mastered, or some battle won.
The disappointing moment in this film comes with the realization of the fact that, had Operation Filmmaker been an unparalleled success, it may have led to others being afforded similar opportunities to fulfill their potential outside a zone of impossibility, but, with the outcome as it is, Muthana may have been one Operation Filmmaker too many. Muthana sarcastically suggests at one point that Nina move on to a new project featuring an Afghani - and she probably wishes she had. Still, by sharing these experiences with audiences, we are rewarded with a renewed appreciation of the balance and bravery required by documentary filmmakers. From here on out, we wish them cooperative, concerned and caring subjects.
As "Seinfeld" said of one particular artistic portrait, "He is a loathsome, offensive brute - yet I can't look away," so let it be said of Operation Filmmaker's artist in training.
Best Documentary, 2007 AFI Fest, Los Angeles
Special Jury Prize, 2007 Chicago International Film Festival
Distributed in the U.S. by First Run Icarus Films, Operation Filmmaker premieres theatrically in New York on June 4, 2008.
Photos courtesy of First Run Icarus Films.
Image top: Liev Schreiber and Muthana Mohmed
Opening June 4th at the IFC Center, Manhattan
http://www.ifccenter.com/
Opening June 10th at the Cinema Arts Centre in Long Island, NY
http://www.cinemaartscentre.org/
Opening June 13th at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago
www.artic.edu/webspaces/siskelfilmcenter/
Opening June 20th at the Brattle Theatre in Boston
http://www.brattlefilm.org/ |
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