''Mosul'' is a 2019 American

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

about the battle to reclaim the Iraqi city of

Mosul Mosul ( ; , , ; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. It is the second largest city in Iraq overall after the capital Baghdad. Situated on the banks of Tigris, the city encloses the ruins of the ...

from the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signi ...

(ISIL) from 2016 to 2017.

Overview

The film is the directorial debut from Dan Gabriel, who worked in the region as a CIA

counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and intelligence agencies use to co ...

officer, and also produced the film.. The film focuses on the intersecting narratives of the various Iraqi ethnic groups that were involved in the operation: Sunni tribesman, Shiite militias, Christian fighters, and Kurdish Peshmerga forces. The eyewitness footage was captured over nine months by a camera crew embedded with various units of the Iraqi forces. The film follows Iraqi journalist Ali Maula who is embedded with the militia, along with war widow

Um Hanadi Wahida Mohamed al-Jumaily (born 1978), better known as Um Hanadi, is an Iraqi fighter and commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) who fought against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the Al-Shirqat District. She is the only femal ...

, and ISIS recruiter Nasser Issa. Others that appear in footage of Maula's interviews include Captain Alaa Atah of the Iraqi Emergency Response Brigade and Sheikh "The Crocodile" Saleh.

Release

Mosul premiered at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival. The official release date for digital distribution is May 14, 2019, by

Gravitas Ventures Gravitas Ventures is an American film distribution company owned by Shout! Studios. The company was founded by Nolan Gallagher in Los Angeles in 2006, and moved its headquarters from Los Angeles to Cleveland in 2019. It focuses on the distribu ...

. The film's original score was composed by

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

-nominated British record producer

Photek Rupert Parkes (born 6 September 1971), known as Photek, is a Los Angeles-based British electronic music DJ/record producer, and TV and film score composer. Photek was born and raised in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. Photek has contributed music ...

. The documentary is 86 minutes long. The original score was written by Photek.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

the film has an approval rating of based on reviews from critics. ''Film Inquiry'' wrote, "Gritty, powerful and honest, the film begs to be experienced, discussed, and remembered." Michael Rechtshaffen of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' said "while not exactly uncharted documentary territory, the Iraq conflict is thought-provokingly portrayed in 'Mosul'." Laura DeMarco called the film "a gripping narrative of life during 'total warfare'."

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 8354112, Mosul 2019 films 2019 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about jihadism Films scored by Photek 2010s American films