Iraqi Odyssey – One Global Family (Encore)

Bombs, war, angry bearded men, shrouded sobbing women, shattered cities: this is 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? In this riveting and timely documentary, author and director Samir tells the compelling story of his globalized middle-class Iraqi family who are scattered all over the world.  Shuttling between Auckland, Moscow, Paris, London, Zurich, Buffalo, and Iraq, Samir presents a moving homage to the frustrated democratic dreams of a people successively plagued by dictatorship, war, and foreign occupation. 

Weaving together the ironic, wistful, and witty testimonies of Samir's relatives with rare documents from private and state archives, THE IRAQI ODYSSEY is a riveting epic that creates a genuine people's history of Iraq. 

IRAQI ODYSSEY is the Swiss entry for this year’s Academy Awards.  It has been awarded the best Asian Film Award and the NETPAC award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival and the Panorama Audience Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.  The film was also an official selection at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. 

Typecast Films will release filmmaker Samir’s epic documentary IRAQI ODYSSEY in New York at the IFC Center and Los Angeles at the Laemmle Music Hall on November 27 before expanding to cities nationwide in the New Year.