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The fears and complications suppressed by the one-hour timeslot of feel-good deus ex media narratives are spilled out here like a messy, unproductive early-stage therapy session. Iraqi film student Muthana Mohmed is “pulled from the rubble” for a P.A. gig by the makers of Everything Is Illuminated, the first of many projecting would-be saviors to hold his hand, then pry loose when his (probably slightly lost in translation) entitlement and leechiness becomes clear. Director Nina Davenport, originally on hand to document the feel-good story, is progressively more entangled and present onscreen, keeping the project going and caving to Muthana’s requests for money out of a sense of guilt over the life-altering power of the humanitarian experiment she’s a part of. The macrocosm of that other nobly intended Iraqi intervention is recast as a queasy comedy of bad manners.
Opens June 4
Opens June 4
