I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This is the first Iraqi film that I have seen and what a stunningly emotional introduction to the cinema of a country that is presented so differently in Hollywood movies. "Green Zone", "The Hurt Locker", "In The Valley Of Elah", "The Kingdom" ... these are all essentially an American view, the victor's perspective. Here 31 year old writer and director Mohammed Daradh - who studied film making in London - has crafted a totally contrasting work. It looks different: it was actually shot in Iraq and not in Jordan or Spain. It sounds different, deploying a mixture of Kurdish and Arabic. And the subject matter is different: the victims of Saddam Hussein and especially the suffering of the Kurds in the north of the country.The two central performances - an old woman (Shazada Hussein) and a young boy (Yasser Talib), respectively the hopeful mother and the bewildered son of a missing Kurd forced to be a soldier in Saddam's army - are so powerful and poignant and their journey highlights the true victims of the dictatorship, all those who went missing and whose bodies may never be identified. The final location of Babylon reminds us that one time this was one of the richest and most civilised locations on earth.

Son of Babylon marks the first few movie to be made in Iraq by an Iraqi, after the fall of Saddam Hussien's Regine. Director Mohamed Al Daradji, a former soldier under Saddam's Regine, tells the story on the despair of the loss of the loved ones during the Iraq war in the early 1900's, where family members of the victims could only see the remains of the loved ones buried under the bed of sand where they hoped for their loved ones to remain alive.The story begins with a Kurdish grandmother, Um-Ibrahim, and her only grandson, Ahmed, on a journey towards Baghdad to look for her son, Ibrahim (grandson's father), who was forced into the army in 1991 during the outbreak of Iraq war. With a weak body and unable to speak Arabic, Um-Ibrahim wants the willful Ahmed to guide her along the streets of Baghdad, looking into possible places that she can find her son. Throughout the journey, the duo met a driver who drives them to Baghdad from the desert and a former soldier forced into performing a massacre during Saddam's Regine, who helps the duo in locating various mass graves to look for Ibrahim.The story for the road movie is fairly simply, but this may not be an easy movie to understand, especially for audience who have no knowledge on the Iraq war and the massacre during Saddam's Regine. The willful Ahmed looks naive and innocent, without knowing what has happened around him until he has to accompany his grandmother in searching for his father. On the other hand, Um-Ibrahim seems more of a villager who is ignorant on the environment outsider her world. Unable to communicate with the people around her in Arabic, it becomes a barrier towards looking for her son. But she will locate her son no matter how difficult it will be. When both has to work hand in hand together, it breeds frustration: Ahmed is tired of his grandmother reading official letters locating the whereabouts of his father; Um-Ibrahim has to stop her grandson from running away from her without her knowledge.When arriving on one of the destination, Um-Ibrahim helps Ahmed change a set of clothes, so that he will not look dirty should they found Ibrahim. At the same time, Ahmed helps Um-Ibrahim washes her face after traveling on a long journey. Such acts sends a message on the desperation and hope of thousands of Iraqi's looking towards finding their family members. As the story unfolds, we will see on how many of the Iraqi's burst into disappointment as their hope dashes after being taken to various mass graves, where victims who died under Saddam's Regine were buried in the wild.The message Daradji wants to send to the audience across the world is the destruction of the lives and hopes of civilians when war broke out somewhere else, be it an foreign invasion or a civil war. At the same time, it also gives a view on the society in chaos after the war, on how people begin to pick up the pieces from the destruction without any order. Son of Babylon is a story told from the view of the Iraqi's who survived the war, where all the people wished for is for the family and the society to live together harmoniously, not out into a war for the benefit of an individual.While we have plenty of movies featuring American troops controlling and restoring the order of Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussien, we do not have any movie that truly reflects the thought from the view of the Iraqi's. Son of Babylon is the first, and may be the only few movies in the world that could have done so. In short, Son of Babylon marks the first few important movie on the destruction of war in the cinema history.

Winning a couple of awards at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival, this Iraqi film is a heartbreaking look at the consequence of war on the people whose sons were forced to fight in. Told through the sad eyes of a grandmother and her grandson, Ahmed, the film easily tugs at the heartstrings of viewers, who would be fairly impacted by its emotional power as felt through the strong performances of the two leads.In the quest to find his missing father, the resourceful Ahmed and his resolute grandmother trek by foot, and hitch the occasional ride by truck across the hot, arid desert environment of Iraq, moving from one location to another to enquire about the whereabouts of the father. Twelve years were what separated the family when the father was forced to become a soldier to fight for Saddam during the war Iraq was involved in during the early 90s.Shot in the actual Iraqi landscape during the early 2000s when the U.S. was occupying the country, Son of Babylon is like a time capsule of images of a nation devastated by an unjust war. Even though shot as if the camera is trailing these two characters as they witness and experience the effects of war, Daradji's film is not a documentary (even though it looks like one, barring a narrator) but a visual document of the humanitarian issues facing not only Iraq today, but also other nations whose civilians have been or are affected by war.One scene in the film brings a powerful jolt to our senses: Ahmed finds himself alone in a mass grave that has been dug. He squats and sees a human skull protruding out from the soil. He moves his palm close and rests it on the skull. A layer of sand becomes stuck to his palm, and he brings it to his cheek. Is his curiously subtle action a sign of acceptance that his father is long gone and it is pointless to search anymore? A scene later shows his grandmother crying uncontrollably, and we see Ahmed trying to console her.This "emotional maturation" of Ahmed is one of the key (albeit implicit) themes of Son of Babylon. It is significant because his character's feelings toward his father changes dramatically – from one of anger (for not being there to support him), to sadness (of his missing father), to acceptance (of his father's death). The realization of truth as harshly unchangeable is what binds people with a common loss as exemplified in the short scene between the grandmother (who speaks Kurdish) and an Arab-speaking widow, the latter being able to feel for the former's loss even though they do not understand each other.Son of Babylon is more than a road movie about the bonding between grandmother and grandson as they search for a missing loved one. It is a humanistic story about the human cost of war. There seems to be no end to violence and destruction, no time for closure, no time to mourn the dead before another war starts.SCORE: 8/10 (www.filmnomenon.blogspot.com) All rights reserved!

There are major events in world history which the world would rather forget. These incidents revive painful memories which cause psychological hurt and heartache. But these events also serve as important lessons in the worldly scheme of things. One such history lesson is the reign of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. While we may not be the most knowledgeable people to tell you the exact terrors which happened during the infamous Gulf War, we are urging you to watch this emotionally engaging piece of work from Iraq, simply because you, our readers, are fellow human beings like us.And we believe that human beings have the ability to feel human emotions, hence our existence. One avenue to experience real human emotions are well made films like this.The story is heartbreakingly simple: We follow a headstrong young boy and his persistent grandmother on their journey across Northern Iraq as they search for the boy's father, a solider who has gone missing since the Gulf War. This happens after the fall of Saddam Hussein, when people are trying to pick up fallen pieces and return to normality. Here we have two hopeful souls, a boy in search of his father and a mother in search of her son – how will their road trip end? Director Mohamed Al-Daradji handles a politically throbbing topic in this award winning film which deserves an important place in the history of international cinema. The young filmmaker approaches this piece of history with extreme sensitivity, compassion and mostly importantly, empathy, as he tells this realistic tale through the camera lens. While it would have been convenient to exploit and milk emotional sympathy (read: Hollywood), the filmmakers took care not to demean the power of cinema by thoughtfully illustrating what the reality is like for the people who suffered the aftermath of Saddam Hussein's time in power.The film's two protagonists are played by Yasser Talib and Shazda Hussein, who deliver calmingly powerful performances that will touch the most contemptuous viewer. Talib's idealistic adamancy comes from his boyish vivacious personality, while Hussein's buoyant stubbornness is coupled with an exasperating grief which aptly complements her co-actor's performance. Your attention will be with the grandmother grandson duo throughout the film's 90 minute runtime, as they uncover the reality which ultimately spells tragedy. A supporting character in the form of a former Republican Guard (played energetically by Bashir Al-Majid) completes this capable ensemble.Richly filled with important political messages of peace and strong representations of symbolic imageries, it is evident that this production is one made with care and deliberation. It is no wonder the film has received critical acclaim at international film festivals, with the 60th Berlinale International Film Festival awarding it with the Amnesty International Film Prize and Peace Film Award, and the Edinburgh International Film Festival giving it a special mention earlier this year. As Iraq's official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film, we are keeping our fingers crossed that the Academy will give this film's its deserved accolade at next year's Oscars.This film is the perfect example of how human emotions are universal, regardless of language. In a gently heartrending scene in this production with Arabic and Kurdish language, a woman tells another: "I do not understand your language, but I feel your sorrow and pain." This is human connection at its best.Also, without giving away too much here, watch out for the devastating finale, which we are declaring as one of cinema's greatest moments.A human tale of hope of closure, this humane film is about how people arise from the ashes and pick up where circumstances left them off – a must watch for 2010, definitely.www.moviexclusive.com