cix_one Maybe my hopes were too high for this movie, but in the end it was a let-down. First, a few good things I can say about it: The images are great, footage is interesting and fresh. As others mentioned, it is a documentary following Iraqis and only Iraqis in a country torn by war, and that angle itself is somehow novel for what is shaping up to be the "Iraqi Documentary" genre.That being said, I have yet to see the relevance of following (for thirty minutes!) the life of a kid who's very special among his peers in that it has to repeat first grade four times. If this were a documentary about how the Iraqi education system accommodates students with disabilities, then the first fragment would be right on. But that wasn't the intent of the movie, as far as I can tell. I expected the documentary to give me a glimpse into the life of an average Iraqi, and - especially the first fragment, which for me set the mood for the entire movie - failed to do that.Overall the movie lacks cohesive glue. It's a collection of (albeit beautifully shot) fragments clobbered together. Maybe more bake time in the editing room could have made a difference, who knows... It feels to me like one could splice in at any point footage of a cat crossing the road, and the movie would not be worse for it. Especially if you like cats.

zetes Well, I finally found the very best documentary from 2006. This exploration of Iraq is reminiscent of the beautiful ethnographic documentaries (and faux-documentaries) of pioneer Robert J. Flaherty. The images are awe-inspiring and completely indelible. The film is broken into three parts. In the first segment, we follow the life of an 11 year-old Sunni boy in Baghdad. The second depicts Shia Muslims in Southern Iraq, particularly the followers of Moqtada al-Sadr. And the third follows a Kurdish family in Northern Iraq. Unlike Flaherty's documentaries, Longley's film is entirely real. The man spent two years wandering Iraq by himself with a camera starting in April of 2003, less than a month after George W. Bush famously declared that major military operations were complete. He's a white man, and it's stunning that he was able to infiltrate these people and film them on such an intimate level. The first and third segments probably held their own danger, but the second segment is especially impressive. How in Hell was Langley able to accompany Shi'ites as they kidnapped alcohol-peddling shopkeepers? It's mind-boggling. This is a rare documentary that is both informative and incredibly cinematic. As a whole, I think Iraq in Fragments comes pretty close to being a masterpiece. There's a silhouetted sequence of some Kurdish kids burning a tractor tire that is one of the most gorgeous shots I've ever seen. Definitely one of the best films of 2006.

cadmandu This is a documentary about three Iraqis. The first is a Sunni boy who works and goes to school in Baghdad. The second is a Shiite religious figure in a city to the south. The third is a Kurdish boy (and his family) in the north.I've seen a lot of documentaries and cinema verite, but this one is one of the most successful. It's as if the camera is invisible, and the photographer got access to whatever he wants. Any documentarian is going to be jealous of this one. I could give many examples. One of the more chilling is the Shiite vigilante raid on the town's market, in which they beat up and kidnap fellow Shiites for the sin of selling alcohol. How on earth does an American get access to that? He actually climbs right into the trucks with the masked militants and films the whole thing from beginning to end.And the result is spectacular. There's this Iraqi fellow sitting on the floor, surrounded by men with guns, his hands tied and a bag over his head, and he makes the comment "What's changed since Saddam? I've done nothing and I'm still sitting on the floor with a bag over my head!"When we move up north to visit the Kurds, we see a brick factory where men are making mud bricks, just as they have been doing for many thousands of years. This is clearly not Nebraska, and anyone who invades a country like this, even with the most altruistic of motives, clearly has no idea what Iraq is about. Whatever the American foreign policy mistakes, military and political mistakes, the bottom line is we lost totally the small window of opportunity we had to turn Iraq into a democracy.

deborahtjjohnson This documentary does what no other film I've seen has been able to accomplish: It shows the world of real Iraqis on the ground. In breathtaking photography we are guided through three different "fragments" of life in Iraq, in Baghdad, the south and the north of the country. What emerges is a portrait of beauty and complexity, revealing aspects of Iraq and the effects of war and occupation that we never see in this country. But the film is not overtly political, and is difficult to pin down. Instead of being an opinionated political essay like the work of Michael Moore, IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS sticks to the idea of showing the situation without adding political commentary and opinions from the filmmaker. We never hear director James Longley's voice in the film, but we see the world of Iraq through his perceptive camera work and patient skills as a documentarian. This film is truly unique, a work of stunning cinematic quality, both current and timeless in its themes.