U.S. Film About Iraqi Student, ‘Operation Filmmaker,’ Creates Gulf
By Rafer Guzman, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
Jun. 9–In 2004, as Liev Schreiber prepared to direct his first feature, “Everything Is Illuminated,” he saw an MTV documentary about an Iraqi film student named Muthana Mohmed. Wouldn’t it be great, he thought, to help this young man find work on a real American movie? Even better, how about hiring another filmmaker to follow the starry-eyed intern around the set?
But things didn’t go as planned. Mohmed was more difficult than grateful, and his chronicler, Nina Davenport, watched relations between the Iraqi and his American benefactors deteriorate. (Likewise, she and Mohmed no longer speak.) The documentary, “Operation Filmmaker,” is a metaphor for the U.S. occupation of Iraq. The film’s tagline: “Hollywood thought it gave him the chance of a lifetime. But no one had an exit strategy.”
We spoke with the Manhattan-based Davenport, 41, who will appear in person with her film Tuesday at Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington. Mohmed declined to comment, citing fears that his participation in an American film could endanger his family’s safety in Baghdad.
What are the parallels between the U.S. situation in Iraq and Muthana’s situation with this American film crew?
It started with an idea that ended up actually being flawed and not thought out enough. What’s going to happen when this guy has to go back? Think about it: He’s a young male who’s been living under a dictatorship. He’s not going to want to go back. So you’re creating a refugee. Are you OK with that? They didn’t think that far. … They expected that he would be an eager intern, the way you’d expect an American film student to be. But he’s from a totally different culture.
At one point he holds a tape of yours hostage.
It was a tape of him playing music on the streets. I kept saying, “If you need money, that’s the fastest way to do it.” … He finally did it, but he found the experience so incredibly humiliating that he tried to destroy the tape.
Is it fair to make this one kid a representative of all of Iraq?
No. And I think that would be a misreading of the film, that he stands in for every Iraqi. He’s his own, unique person.
But do you have concerns that the film will be taken that way?
I feel like people see it as a very complicated picture. And they have anger toward the Americans, anger toward Muthana, anger towards me. They see that this is just a very messy, untidy situation — especially when you’re trying to do something good — let alone war.
When & Where: Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. Cinema Arts Centre, 423 Park Ave., Huntington; $12. Info: 631-723-7611, cinemaartscentre.org.
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