Passionate hopes and fears in ‘Voices’

In April of this year, more than 150 digital video cameras were distributed across Iraq to allow its embattled citizens to document their lives. The result is a startling film, “Voices of Iraq,” that captures an exceedingly complex population speaking its mind during an incredibly chaotic period in its history.

The 400 hours of footage, shot over five months and collected by producer Eric Manes and co-producers Martin Kunert and Archie Drury, was edited down to a fast-paced 80 minutes by a team of translators and editors. Ordered chronologically, with U.S. newspaper headlines acting to place what we are seeing in context, the film travels from Baghdad south along the Tigris River to the marshlands near Basra and eventually north to the Kurdish regions. While turning the cameras on one another, men, women and children, clergy and police, merchants and workers all speak passionately, expressing their hopes and fears.

Some celebrate their freedom, while others lament the post-Saddam Hussein lack of security and stability. One man shouts, “Now is better than under Saddam, even if we die of hunger!” Others speak about the long process of learning democracy. Refugees yearn to return to their homes. It’s impossible to know whether the attitudes are representational, other than the fact that we hear from so many.

There is a fair amount of pro-American opinion, especially among children and Kurds, but there are also moments of family members painfully detailing the deaths of loved ones, allegedly at the hands of U.S. troops. There is no virulently anti-American rhetoric, though the filmmakers do include Internet videos made by insurgents calling on Arab countries to join their cause.

By turns heartbreaking, amusing and disturbing, the film features people from different regions, economic classes and religions, recounting stories that are sometimes bleak, sometimes encouraging, but always compelling. Naturally rough around the edges, “Voices of Iraq” is a logistical triumph that humanizes the Iraqi people without being sentimental.

*

‘Voices of Iraq’

MPAA rating: Unrated

Times guidelines: Graphic depiction of torture

A Voices of Freedom and Booya Studios production, released by Magnolia Pictures. Filmed and directed by Iraqi citizens. Producer Eric Manes. Co-producers Martin Kunert, Archie Drury. Editors Robin Russell, Martin Kunert, Stephen Marks. In English, Arabic and Kurdish, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.

Exclusively at the Landmark Westside Pavilion Cinemas, 10800 W. Pico Blvd., West Los Angeles. (310) 281-8223.