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Bagdad Film School

Documentary, 2010, 60 min.

In 2003, documentary-maker Shuchen Tan meets two Iraqi colleagues who, despite the civil war, want to set up the Baghdad Film School. Of all places, in a torn country where independent thinking is dangerous. In January 2009, normal life slowly seems to reappear and Tan joins the new class of students to follow them for a year. Because Baghdad still turns out to be unsafe and most film students come from districts where every stranger has his life at risk, the students get the assignment to capture their life in the so-called no-go areas. This produces a distressing picture of young and creative people who are caught in a country where religious militias still call the shots and every camera is an enemy. Their stories about the past years exceed anybody's imaginative powers, but the short films they make during the school year also prove that life in Baghdad is still difficult. Their survival instinct, friendships and love of cinema keep these brave youngsters going.

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