4 Short Stories on Iraq

The four films in 4 Short Stories on Iraq contain images we usually do not get to see on our newscasts and current affairs programmes. They are stories from coffee houses, mosques and living rooms. In Sistani: Object and Emulation Great Ayatollah Sistani has not left his house for six years. The chosen leader of the 180 million Shia Muslims promulgates decrees from his home, and fatwas, if necessary. As he does not see the need for an uprising against the Americans in Iraq, his followers remain calm. What will happen, the filmmakers of this documentary wonder, if the Americans incur Sistani's wrath? Anyway, the unrest among his followers does grow. And that is what the militant cleric Al-Sadr capitalises on. The second doc, Losing Faith, compares the torturing under Saddam Hussein's regime – when surgeons were forced to amputate limbs – with the atrocities committed by the current occupying forces. In Children of Abu Ghraib, a former American soldier recounts how even children were abused in Abu Ghraib, whereas international treaties prohibit even the incarceration of children without an indictment; but this specific treaty was not signed by the United States. A Tale of Two Cities compares the power struggle between two religious centres: Najaf in Iraq and Qom in Iran.