Little Birds
(“Little Birds—Iraku senka no kazoku tachi—”)
2005 / Arabic, English, Japanese / Color / 35mm (1:1.37) / 102 min
Director, Photography: Watai Takeharu
Editing, Producer: Yasuoka Takaharu
Editing Assistant: Tsujii Kiyoshi
Production Company: Yasuoka Films
Distribution: Project “Little Birds”
World Sales, Source: J.F. Oya (BIO-TIDE)
The director was already in Baghdad to cover the U.S. air raids when they began in March 2003. Shouting in front of a U.S. Army tank, he portrays the real situation that befell the Iraqi civilians. As he shows how different families fall victim to heavy air raids and the horrors of war, he questions the “meaning” of war.
[Director’s Statement] What I tried to depict in this film was the war seen from the side of the attacked. I wanted to look back on what has happened in Iraq these past two years, and preserve it so that even after fifty or a hundred years it will not sink into oblivion. In the Middle East, children who have passed away are referred to as “little birds.” Please, once more lend your ears to the voices of the people of Iraq, to the singing of the little birds.
Watai Takeharu
Born 1971 in Osaka, Watai Takeharu started his career as a journalist in 1997, and became a member of the independent journalist group Asia Press International the following year. He made this film based on footage of the war in Iraq from March 2003 to July 2004. |