Farewell Bagad (2013) Reviews

• A well-depicted episode of historical importance

  Nozz2014-04-13

  This is a fairly straightforward, authentic-looking story about how the Jewish community of Iraq, having been part of the local society for two and a half millennia, was hustled out-- somewhere between expulsion and rescue-- after Iraq found itself on the losing side of Israel's War of Independence. (Iraq has no border with Israel, but sent troops anyway.) The story is shown through the eyes of a boy who sees previously hidden political activism and attitudes among his family and friends come to light, for better or worse, as the crisis develops and he is forced to take on adult responsibilities. Daniel Gad, as the boy, is too old-- or at least too big-- for the part. We're forced to mentally subtract a few years from his appearance. The period scenery, on the other hand, looks good except that there can be no very broad outdoor photography because there is too much modernity in contemporary Israel where the shooting took place. The film is almost entirely in Arabic; among the audience, those who know the language took delight in some salty and picturesque phrases that were lost in translation. Based on a novel and evidently filmed with the novelist's cooperation (he has a cameo), the film seems to take care to touch on several different angles within the political and social scene-- friendships between Jews and Muslims, the communist movement that was active during the same period, the assimilationist option extending even to conversion, the Zionist movement, the arrival of Arab refugees from Palestine, and the cultural influence of the West. For those unfamiliar with the experience of Jews in the world of Islam, it's an interesting picture and it suggests an important added perspective on today's tensions.

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• A movie that I'm glad I saw!

  Red-1252015-07-28

  Farewell Baghdad (2013) (The Dove Flyer) was written and directed by Nissim Dayan. This movie portrays a chapter in Jewish history about which I had no knowledge. The Jewish community in Baghdad had existed for more than 2,000 years. In 1950 and 1951, all the Jews in Baghdad were forced to leave. Hundreds of thousands of Jews left for Israel. They didn't want to leave their home, and many of them simply couldn't believe they would be forced to leave Baghdad. They believed they were an essential part of Iraqi society, and they probably were. Nonetheless, they did leave. The volunteer who introduced the film said, "Today there are no Jews in Iraq." Daniel Gad stars as Kabi, a 16-year-old boy who has no concept of revolution, Zionism, or Communism, until he is confronted by all of these. Yasmin Ayun plays the beautiful Rachel, the young wife of Kabi's uncle. Tawfeek Barhom plays Adnan, Kabi's friend. (We had already seen Barhom in his starring role in "A Borrowed Identity," which I reviewed recently for IMDb.) Anti-Semitism was a driving force in the expulsion of the Jews from Baghdad. However, some Jews were Communist revolutionaries, and some Jews were Zionists. As far as I could tell, the Zionists just wanted to get other Jews safely out of Iraq. I wouldn't call them revolutionaries. However, it's possible that the Iraqi government didn't make these distinctions. The problem I had with this film is that it wasn't always clear to me who was hiding the rifles, who was trying to arrange for Israeli planes to take the Jews to Israel, and who was being imprisoned and why. I'm sure that an Iraqi--Jewish or Muslim--would know the answers to these questions. I have to admit I wasn't always certain about what was happening. Unfortunate as that was, I still enjoyed this film because I started with no knowledge of the history of Jews in Iraq. When the movie was over, I had both a sense of what happened, and a sense of the misery endured by the people who were forced to leave. The film was both very informative and very dramatic, and I'm glad I saw it. We saw this movie in Rochester's Dryden Theatre, as part of the highly acclaimed Rochester International Jewish Film Festival. It will work well on the small screen.

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• An interesting concept let down by a poor script

  RareMovieCritic2017-02-01

  This film deals with an interesting topic in an interesting time period, but it feels like a soap opera, has TV-like production values and a weak script. I give this film major kudos for resurrecting this rare dialect or bringing it to the big screen, and the although I don't understand it, the actors seemed very convincing with it, as far as I can tell. It's not the fault of the actors that the script is really weak. Love stories, jealousy, lots and lots of talk but not enough action. I don't mean car chases, but everything in this film is conveyed by dialogue, like in theater, as opposed to visually. It is dialogue heavy and light on events. The director had not directed a feature film in almost 30 years, having been mostly active in the 80's. That my explain why the film is not that entertaining. A film about a serious topic can still be engaging and entertaining, even if it's tragic. Here, I just felt like I was watching a soap or a low-quality TV show. It has higher production values than Hatufim but it much less entertaining. The film is both long and uneventful. Even the love stories are not that captivating. I never felt for a second that the actors really felt in love or felt attracted to the girls. The jealousy felt forced rather than uncontainable and overwhelming. I think the director bet too much on the love stories to carry this film and the bet did not pay off. There was only one cinematic moment - the breaking of the pigeon cages near the end. The film needed more of that. The cinematography was unremarkable. There was none of that film magic of colors, depth of field, angles and camera movement. It was filmed as if it were a documentary. All that could be overlooked if the story were entertaining. The pacing was slow, the events just felt like a series of unrelated events rather than escalation of hostility or consequence. The film also lacks focus as to what is the main story, who are the main characters. It shows the lives of many characters, like a TV show, but without any focus or flow. I'm not sure if this could even work as a film to begin with. Maybe if it had focused on fewer characters it would've been better, but there are simply not enough events to make this story interesting. That is sad because not many people will make a film about this community, this time and place, so we are unlikely to see another attempt at this topic anytime soon. I can't really recommend this film to people other than ones interested in the Judeo-Iraqi dialect.

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