Twenty Years After U.S.-Led Invasion of Iraq, Filmmakers Examine Build Up to War, Challenges in Present Day Baghdad
variety.comAddie Morfoot Contributor Monday marks the 20th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. CPH:DOX will reflect on the repercussions of the war, which ousted Saddam Hussein, but never led to the discovery of weapons of mass destruction, by screening two documentaries: Greta Stocklassa’s “Blix Not Bombs” and Karrar Al-Azzawi’s “Baghdad on Fire.”“(The invasion) was an event that has shaped international politics over the course of the last two decades in unpredictable and often devastating ways,” says CPH:DOX head of program Mads Mikkelsen. “Not least inside Iraq itself. (‘Blix Not Bombs’ and ‘Baghdad on Fire’) provide two different takes – a shot and reverse shot – on the course of events back in 2003 and on the current situation in Iraq as seen from the inside and through the eyes of the young.”“Blix Not Bombs” follows Hans Blix, the former head of the U.N.
Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, who was sent to Iraq in 2002 to determine whether U.S. suspicions that the country was manufacturing weapons of mass destruction were founded.
Though the final report found no evidence of an Iraqi weapons program under Hussein, the U.S. and a coalition of allies nevertheless decided to invade the country.
Now in the final stretch of his life, Blix questions whether he did enough to prevent a war whose impact is felt to this day. “To me, Hans’s story is not only an intriguing behind-the-scenes of one of the most important events in modern history, but it’s also the story of the limits of diplomacy, moral dilemmas, and personal responsibility in shaping the world,” Stocklassa told Variety while working on the film in 2021.Meanwhile, “Baghdad on Fire” follows 19-year-old activist leader Tiba and her friends from
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