''Pictures from Iraq'' is a 2022 documentary by Scottish filmmaker

Robbie Fraser Robbie Fraser is a Scottish film maker. He has made documentaries about the Scottish poet Hamish Henderson, the Scottish mountaineer Hamish MacInnes, and had made two documentaries about the work of Scottish photojournalist David Pratt (Scottish ...

and Scottish photojournalist David Pratt that follows Pratt revisiting locations in Iraq that he reported during 1991, and during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Plot summary

''Pictures from Iraq'' follows Pratt as he returns to

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 ...

, Qayyarah,

Kirkuk Kirkuk (; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of the Kirkuk Governorate. The city is home to a diverse population of Kurds, Iraqi Turkmen, Iraqi Turkmens and Arabs. Kirkuk sits on the ruins of the original Kirkuk Cit ...

and

Erbil Erbil (, ; , ), also called Hawler (, ), is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The city is the capital of the Erbil Governorate. Human settlement at Erbil may be dated back to the 5th millennium BC. At the h ...

in the autonomous Kurdish region. In the documentary David Pratt meets Major General Sirwan Barzani, women politicians in the

Kurdistan Freedom Party Kurdistan Freedom Party (, abbreviated as PAK) is a Kurdish nationalist and separatist militant group of Kurds in Iran, based in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The group has declared the creation of an independent Kurdish country or a 'Republ ...

, and journalist Urban Hamid. The documentary jumps between recent footage shot by Robbie Fraser, archival 1991 and 2003 footage of David Pratt in Iraq, and 2003 photography by Pratt. It includes footage of the moment that Abu Bakr al Baghdadi announced the formation of the

Islamic State 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 jihadism, Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS ...

Production

Production of the film was funded by Screen Scotland,

BBC Persian BBC Persian () is the Persian language broadcast station and subsidiary of BBC World Service which conveys the latest political, social, economical and sport news relevant to Iran and the world. Its headquarters are in London, United Kingdom. Pe ...

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, employing approximately 1,250 staff as of 2017, to produce 15,000 hours of television and radio programming per year. BBC Scotla ...

, and Terranoa (Fraser's company). The film is produced and directed by Fraser and Pratt. It is a sequel to Fraser's 2020 documentary ''

Pictures from Afghanistan ''Pictures from Afghanistan'' is a 2020 documentary by Robbie Frazer that follows the work of Scottish journalist and war photographer David Pratt as he revisits the locations in Afghanistan that he reported on in the 1980s Soviet–Afghan War. ...

'' that also featured Pratt (although he was not a director of that documentary.) To reduce the number of meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic, the producers filmed ''Pictures from Iraq'' and the upcoming ''Pictures from the Balkans'' in the same four week window. The style of the production was influenced by '' Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown''.

Release

''Pictures from Iraq'' was first screened at the

Glasgow Film Festival The Glasgow Film Festival is an annual film festival based in Glasgow, Scotland. The festival began in 2005. By 2015, the festival had seen audience figures top 40,000 for two consecutive years. It is now considered one of the top film festivals ...

in March 2022.

Critical reception

The footage is described by The Herald as evocative, and by documentary reviewer Geoffrey Macnab as distressing. Paul Trainer, writing in ''Glasgowist'', described it as "a fascinating, highly personal journey."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pictures from Iraq 2022 documentary films 2022 films British documentary films 2020s English-language films English-language documentary films