Iraqi Odyssey

Bombs, war, angry bearded men, shrouded sobbing women, shattered cities: Iraq, as seen through the eyes of the western media these days. These images are juxtaposed with those from the fifties and seventies: films with frivolous music, unveiled women who study; elegantly dressed men in Bagdad, a modern city. How did it come to this? Film director Samir tells the story of his globalized middle-class Iraqi family, scattered between Auckland, Moscow, Paris, London and Buffalo, New York.

A family story and political research

All of author and director Samir's family members, who once lived close to each other in Baghdad, now live spread over the globe: Auckland, Sydney, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, London. All have comfortably settled down and are well integrated in the new communities. Paradoxically, there is now a closer contact among the family members because all of them have created a closely intertwined network with the help of the Internet. There is even an own homepage with a digital family tree. All information is exchanged via this platform. By now, they know more from each other than they ever did in Iraq...With the help of Samir's globalized Iraqi family, «Iraqi Odyssey» shall investigate the complex history of Iraq against a global backdrop.