 FESTIVALS: * Australian Cinemathèque (Brisbane, Australia) * Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (USA) * Berlinale * SXSW South by Southwest (USA) * Sydney * Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Czech Republic) * Jerusalem Film Festival (Israel) * Melbourne * Edinburgh International Film Festival (UK) * Sarajevo Film Festival (Bosnia and Herzegovina) * Vancouver Jewish Film Festival (Canada) * Viennale (Austria) *Movies that Matter Foundation (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) * Edinburgh International Film Festival (UK) * Cinema Nova (Brugge, Belgium) * Filmmuseum Potsdam (Germany) * Gartenbaukino (Wien, Austria) * Filmarchiv Austria (Vienna, Austria) * Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema (Canada) AWARDS: * Academy Award Nominee * Independent Spirit Award Nominee * Emmy Award Nominee * Full Frame, Inspiration Award | My Country, My Country
Working alone in Iraq over eight months, director/cinematographer Laura Poitras creates an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Iraqis living under U.S. occupation. Her principal focus is Dr. Riyadh, an Iraqi medical doctor, father of six and Sunni political candidate. An outspoken critic of the occupation, he is equally passionate about the need to establish democracy in Iraq, arguing that Sunni participation in the January 2005 elections is essential. Yet all around him, Dr. Riyadh sees only chaos, as his waiting room fills each day with patients suffering the physical and mental effects of ever-increasing violence. Dramatically interwoven into the personal journey of Dr. Riyadh is the landscape of the US military occupation, with Australian private security contractors, American journalists and the UN officials who orchestrate the elections. Unfolding like a narrative drama, MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY follows the agonizing predicament and gradual descent of one man caught in the tragic contradictions of the U.S. occupation of Iraq and its project to spread democracy in the Middle East. PRESS IMAGES: (click to preview) 
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