Baghdad Filmschool - How to survive as an independent filmmaker in Iraq

Bomb OK!

We have been here now for four days filming in Baghdad, so perhaps it is time to say something about the situation here. From what we hear from the people that we meet is that the situation is not good. In fact is has become a lot worse than the last time when we were here in March. Back then I had an optimistic feeling about the recovery of this crazy warzone-like city. Now people are not so optimistic anymore. “We have gone through a bad time over the last few months”, they say. “There is less security, people are more tense”.

There have been a couple of bomb attacks lately, in the South of Baghdad in Doura, near Karada (where our hotel is), in the Sha’ab area, where a lot of the students from the Filmschool live. Walid told me that a bomb had exploded near to his house last week. Yesterday evening we were having dinner at the hotel restaurant. It was like a normal everyday evening. Francis, the chef of the restaurant, was watching Tom and Jerry with his friends on the telly as always. They were having beers and lots of fun, when suddenly we heared a big bomb blast. From the impact you could hear that it was a big blow but far away. We all looked up from our plates. “What is happening?” I asked Francis. “Bomb OK!”, was the only thing he said smiling. Nobody of the other Iraqi’s reacted.This night we heared another big bomb blast at 4 AM followed by fire exchange. Then this whole morning a lot of helicopter patrols, flying very low over our hotel and our area. It makes you feel a bit itchy. People here say that they expect there will be more attacks in the next few months because there are elections coming up in September, and because the Americans are starting to pull out this summer. 

Nevertheless we just took a refreshing dip in the pool of our hotel for the first time, a great way to wash away the stress.