Baghdad Twist 2007
Distributed by Icarus Films, 32 Court St., 21st Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201; 800-876-1710
Produced by Germaine Ying Gee Wong/National Film Board of Canada
Directed by Joe Balass
DVD, color and b&w, 34 min.
College - Adult
Jewish Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Iraq, Immigration, Canadian Studies
Date Entered: 11/18/2009
Reviewed by Michael T. Fein, Central Virginia Community College, Lynchburg, VABaghdad Twist is the story of the Balass family from prior to World War II until 1970. Using mainly family photos and Super 8 movies, supplemented by archival newsreel and photos, director Joe Balass uses an interview he conducted with his mother to tell the story of their life as Jews in Baghdad. While we never see Valentine as she is now, we see her as she grows from little girl to adolescent to attractive young woman and mother. A woman of great resolve, the banter she and her son have during the interview shows much about her character and is in itself a drawing point for the film. While Valentine claims that life was good for Jews in Iraq, she notes that after the founding of modern Israel in 1948 most Jews left the country. Still, as she was growing up, she considered herself an Iraqi first and a Jew second. After the war of 1967 things deteriorated so much for the remaining Jews (her father was imprisoned several times) the Balass family left Iraq in 1970, eventually ending up in Montreal.
The picture quality is, considering some of the material that Balass had to work with, quite good. The sound quality is excellent.
This view of Iraq from pre-World War II to 1970 is an interesting and overall sharp production that will be of interest to those who enjoy Jewish and/or Middle Eastern Studies.