When the Iraq Film Archives were destroyed by US bombs during the 2003 war, a journalist rescued eight scraps of celluloid from the wreckage, totalling 14.3 seconds. In 2004, ICARP (the Iraq Coalition Archives Restoration Project) announced that it intended to use these scraps to painstakingly reconstruct what was once considered the greatest collection of Arab Cinema in the world. Here are the first six restorations, including Al Mas' Ala Al-Kubra (Mohamed Shukri Jameel, 1983, an epic about the 1920’s uprising against British colonial rule, starring Yousef al-Any and Oliver Reed) and Al Ayyam Al-Tawila (Tewfik Saleh, 1980, based on an autobiographical novel by Saddam Hussein).
Recommendations
view all
Night Will Fall
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Sidney
For Sama
Casting By
Directed by John Ford
Jim: The James Foley Story
The Godfather Family: A Look Inside
The Curious Birth of Benjamin Button
Being James Bond
John Candy: I Like Me
These Amazing Shadows
The Summers of It - Chapter Two: It Ends
Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies
Drew: The Man Behind the Poster
A Decade Under the Influence
Being Eddie
Val
Inside Deep Throat
I Am Ali