SYNOPSIS
My Home, Your War is a documentary about the changes in one Iraqi woman¡¯s life in the three years after the Allied Forces\' attack and the war. During that period, the director worked closely with Layla Hassan, an Iraqi woman, including in the final footage not only snippets of telephone conversations and email with Layla but also footage which Layla shot herself. The result is a portrayal of Iraq, not from the familiar perspective of Western media, but from the perspective of a Sunni Muslim woman who is living through the war in the fringes of Baghdad.
Perhaps, more than anything, the film vividly portrays the impact of the war on Iraq and on Iraqi women and families. When tensions between religious sects rise and terror becomes an everyday affair, the safety of women on the streets becomes sharply compromised. While Layla dreams of escaping the vortex of violence by going abroad, her younger sister, once a radical militant, becomes both more conservative and religious. These two ordinary girls, who used to consume American pop culture through M-TV are now part of an anti-American resistance movement and collect various military weapons. The final scene where Layla portrays herself gazing at her child with a blank expression on her face, devoid of any hope, brings forth a sharp cry of despair. (KWON Eun-sun)
PROGRAM NOTE
My Home, Your War is a documentary about the changes in one Iraqi woman¡¯s life in the three years after the Allied Forces\' attack and the war. During that period, the director worked closely with Layla Hassan, an Iraqi woman, including in the final footage not only snippets of telephone conversations and email with Layla but also footage which Layla shot herself. The result is a portrayal of Iraq, not from the familiar perspective of Western media, but from the perspective of a Sunni Muslim woman who is living through the war in the fringes of Baghdad.
Perhaps, more than anything, the film vividly portrays the impact of the war on Iraq and on Iraqi women and families. When tensions between religious sects rise and terror becomes an everyday affair, the safety of women on the streets becomes sharply compromised. While Layla dreams of escaping the vortex of violence by going abroad, her younger sister, once a radical militant, becomes both more conservative and religious. These two ordinary girls, who used to consume American pop culture through M-TV are now part of an anti-American resistance movement and collect various military weapons. The final scene where Layla portrays herself gazing at her child with a blank expression on her face, devoid of any hope, brings forth a sharp cry of despair. (KWON Eun-sun)