DON’T MISS THIS FILM
THE SITUATION
Directed by Philip Haas; written by Wendell Steavenson; music by Jeff Beal;
cinematography by Sean Bobbitt
With: Connie Nielsen, Damian Lewis, Mido Hamada, and Driss Roukhe. Not
Rated. Running Time: 106 minutes
Reviewed by Joel Johnson
America
is constantly bombarded with dramas that are “ripped from the headlines.”
These most frequently come from television where a news story is embedded in
a program with a familiar format and characters, but director Philip Haas
has taken the challenge of making a film that addresses the dominant issue
in American life over the past four-plus years—the war in Iraq. Haas has
stated that he wanted to make a film that contributed to the national
dialogue on the Iraq War as it happens as opposed to commenting on the war
after the fact. Fortunately, he was able to find
journalist-turned-screenwriter Wendell Steavenson.
Steavenson is married to an Iraqi photojournalist and lived in Iraq both
before and after the American invasion. She was able to use this experience
to bring an authenticity to the story, and it is probably not an accident
that the main character is a woman journalist (Connie Nielsen) who becomes
romantically involved with an Iraqi photojournalist—a Christian. Haas was
also successful in attracting a fine—though hardly big-name—cast. In
addition to Nielsen, her costar Damien Lewis, and many American or English
actors to portray Americans, there are also many fine actors from the Middle
East portraying Iraqis. This avoids a problem affecting many productions set
in foreign countries that focus so much on the American characters that the
natives seem to be window dressing in a story about their own country. Haas
was also very successful in stretching a modest budget of approximately one
million dollars for a production that has sixty speaking parts and includes
scenes with helicopters, tanks, and explosions.
The
Situation was shot in Morocco, and the production was able to obtain the
cooperation of the Moroccan military to use their equipment. Unfortunately,
the low budget does show when there are scenes that appear somewhat
underpopulated and are without the visual sweep one might expect from a more
lavishly financed production. These are fairly minor quibbles. The strength
of the film is how it truly captures the sense of confusion and conflicting
pressures that are affecting both Americans and Iraqis. There is great
difficulty in determining whom to trust, and the cost for a mistake is very
great.
The
film was shot between July and September of 2005. The reality portrayed
seems more consistent with this earlier period in the war. The film’s
violence in Iraq is more sporadic and less deadly than it is now. The
American presence is viewed by Iraqis in the film with a mixture of
suspicion, hope, resentment, and opportunism. One suspects that any initial
Iraqi optimism about the American presence in Iraq has long since been
exhausted. The film clearly mentions the tension and long-simmering
antipathy between Sunni and Shia, but the film does not refer to the kind of
sectarian bloodshed that seems to be so commonplace now. The film shows
Muslims going to Mosque to worship, but there are no radical Islamist
characters who have embraced jihadi violence as fulfilling God’s wishes.
The
film’s reality is certainly grim and difficult, but most filmgoers will
likely bring their own baggage based on four years’ worth of daily reports
of suicide bombings, beheadings, forced evictions, kidnappings, torture,
murders, and the ubiquitous roadside improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
This may result in a perspective more bleak than that portrayed on the
screen. This leads us to the second part of the challenge in making a
topical film as the reality still unfolds. Haas, Steavenson, and company
have made a film about Iraq that is well acted and easily sustains audience
interest. They have met the first part of the challenge: make a good film.
The second part of the challenge may be even more daunting: getting people
into seats at the cinema to watch it. It would be a shame—though an
understandable one—if filmgoers chose to pass on watching this film because
it has been ripped from very unpleasant headlines, but they would miss
seeing an outstanding and very thought-provoking film about a most important
situation.
