The fallout of the 2019 Iraqi Revolution and the emotional toll of living in the struggling city of Baghdad are seen from a youthful, creative perspective in filmmaker Maja Tschumi’s Immortals.
After largely peaceful youth led protests against outside foreign interference have been routinely squashed by government forces, young people in Iraq have been left with few tangible hopes for a brighter, prosperous, and inclusive future. Amid the backdrop of a country with few opportunities for young people and even fewer available, stable jobs, Immortals focuses on the challenges faced by two very different activists, Milo and Khalili. Milo is an out and proud queer feminist, who finds it frustrating that she has to present herself in public as a male just to access certain spaces and move around Baghdad with any degree of freedom. She is also struggling to obtain a passport – thanks to tribal, patriarchal restrictions – so she can leave the country. For his part, Khalili is a shy, socially awkward person who uses filmmaking as an outlet for his frustrations. Not only does Khalili feel the weight of societal expectations, but he often puts himself directly in harm’s way to capture exactly what’s happening within the country’s protest movement.
Immortals has an interesting storytelling gambit that might make one consider whether this is a “true” documentary or not. Some of the footage in Immortals has been recreated with the participation of Tschumi’s subjects and Iraqi crew in certain cases where it would’ve been too dangerous or deadly to capture real events or to depict situations that are verboten to film. The differences between the real footage and recreations are almost impossible to spot, with Tschumi and the film’s brave subjects blending things together seamlessly.
Neither Milo nor Khalil are doing especially well – especially the latter who essentially spends a lot of his time living on the streets and in a perpetual state of panic – but they still work tirelessly to make sure outside observers know what’s happening on the ground in Iraq. Immortals moves forward under the power of righteous youthful rage, palpable frustration, and much sadness. Their choices are to either stay and remain obedient, stay silent and die, or do everything in their power to carve out a better life, either inside the country or away from it. There are no right answers in Immortals, and while the film could benefit from a broader perspective at times, there’s no denying the power of these first person accounts of often unpublished traumas. It’s proof that great societal change can often come at the price of nerve testing emotional pain.
Friday, April 26, 2024 – 2:15 pm – Scotiabank 6
Saturday, April 27, 2024 – 10:00 am – Scotiabank 7
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