The title might be a pun, perhaps, but there’s nothing even remotely humorous about Iraq in Fragments, the latest in the seemingly inexhaustable wave of documentaries about or inspired by Bush’s Folly. Split into three distinct sections, director James Longley first spends time with an abused, fatherless 11-year-old auto mechanic, then Moqtada Sadr’s extremist Shiite faction, and lastly a village of Iraqi Kurds, in particular another young, dispossessed child forced into labor over school. Parts one and three both shoot the action through the eyes of children while making political and social observations through the voices of adults, obfuscating many of the intended general points. That leaves part two, a chilling portrait of religious and political fervor in the face of the American-caused chaos, incomplete due to some unnecessarily choppy editing and insufficiently provided information. Overall, Longley’s is a riveting film at once penetrating and not quite complete.
Opens November 8 at Film Forum
Opens November 8 at Film Forum
