Documentaries

Hams al moodun

Whispers of the Cities
Kasim Abid
Irak, GBR 2013
62 min
V'14

Most of us interact with “conflict cities”’ like Ramallah, Baghdad and Erbil through the media, which cyclically deliver news of car bombs and shootouts, mass arrests and incursions, death and mourning, from these spaces of chronic misery. Through his documentary WHISPERS OF THE CITIES, Iraqi filmmaker Kasim Abid confronts his audience with alternative images from these broken places – images of ordinary life.
A completely observational work lacking dialogue and narration, the film allows its viewers to witness snippets of life in these three cities. Children struggle to cross muddy roads in the rain, cars maneuver through traffic, street vendors sell Arabic pretzels, the poor beg for spare change, construction workers go about their business and, in the background, curfew announcements and explosions, rushing ambulances and smoke. Abid watched the residents of these three cities from windows or balconies over a remarkable ten years, recording them as they went about practicing what the Arabs call “sumud”, or steadfastness, determinedly imposing some sense of normalcy through mundane routine under their immeasurably difficult and threatening circumstances. (Sophie Chamas)

With 23RD AUGUST 2008
 

Credits
  • Kasim Abid
  • Kasim Abid
  • Kasim Abid
  • Peter Hodges
  • Kasim Abid
  • James Milner-Smyth
  • Naseer Shamma
Oxymoron Films

Kasim Abid

DCP
col
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