92 minutes / Color
Release: 2008
Copyright: 2007
In 2004, American actor Liev Schreiber saw an MTV segment on Iraqi film student Muthana Mohmed, whose dreams of becoming a filmmaker had been thwarted by the bombing of his university during "Operation Iraqi Freedom." Schreiber, then preparing to film his directorial debut, Everything is Illuminated, in Prague, invited Muthana to work as a production assistant on the film.
Nina Davenport was hired to document Muthana's experience as an intern on the Hollywood movie. But Schreiber's well-intentioned gesture doesn't result in the inspiring story everyone had hoped for, as differing expectations and agendas clash. In particular, Muthana begrudgingly performs or shirks responsibility for the tasks assigned to him, repeatedly squandering a golden opportunity.
For OPERATION FILMMAKER, Davenport chronicled Muthana's story over a two-year period, from his work in Prague as a P.A. on Schreiber's Holocaust drama and later on Doom, a sci-fi film starring "The Rock," to a stint at a London film school, periodically contrasting his experiences abroad with scenes of Muthana's family and friends in wartorn Baghdad.
While documenting Muthana's relationships with the producers, crews and stars of both films-characterized by a psychologically fascinating stew of good intentions, bad faith, liberal guilt, and opportunism. Davenport herself eventually becomes embroiled in the young man's perennial financial difficulties and visa problems. In its continuing but futile search for a "happy ending," OPERATION FILMMAKER exposes the often mutually manipulative relationships between filmmakers and their subjects.
"An essential study in intercultural communication and the ways that it can go so very wrong… Davenport's direction is intricate and her editing is sublime." —Eric Kohn, Indiewire
"Amazing… OPERATION FILMMAKER, with its cliff-hanger ending, is an astute look at the unacknowledged wounds of colonialism that so pervade every aspect of our involvement in the Middle East.” —David Lamble, Bay Area Reporter
"This extraordinary film about human nature is both a fine example of and challenge to the documentary genre. Highly recommended for all libraries" —Lawrence R. Maxted, Library Journal
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