The Situation
Directed by Philip Haas
The Situation, the first fiction feature to focus on the war in Iraq, represents a distinct and deliberate departure from director Philip Haas’ other films, which include the allegorical Angels and Insects and The Music of Chance (both literary adaptations) and numerous documentaries. Haas commissioned journalist Wendell Stevenson to develop and write The Situation’s script based on her first-hand observations while she was reporting on the Iraqi situation before and during American occupation.
The film’s central character is an American female journalist (Connie Nielsen) who becomes personally involved in the story she’s covering, which causes her tremendous conflict and pain, and her experience gives audiences insight about the human tragedies brought on by the war.
“I’d never before made a film with an original script, nor one with an overt political point of view, and I was interested in changing gears. And, as a citizen, I wanted to make a film about Iraq; I thought it was important to do so—not as an historical document, in as much as we think about films about Vietnam that were made years after the fact,” explains Haas. “I thought it was important to do it now, in the middle of the conflagration.”
“I’d read Wendy Stevenson’s reporting from Iraq and found it to be very accurate and humanistic—especially a piece she wrote called “Osama,” in which she followed a young jihadi as he went around trying to blow things us while his brother was actually working for the Americans. I found it compelling. Wendy’s also a fiction writer, so she was ideal to write the script.”
MERIN: The “Osama” story’s reflected in the script …
HAAS: Yes, that apparently happens frequently in Iraqi families. And, based on Wendy’s observations, it’s common wisdom among Iraqis and American soldiers in country, the current conditions are thought by Iraqis to be worse than they were under Sadaam.
Do you think that impression isn’t being reported in the documentaries and news coming out of Iraq?
I think people are dead to the news. And that’s why I wanted to make a fiction feature film. I wanted to do something that would get under peoples’ skin and give a human face to this Iraqi and American tragedy. I mean, I think there’s wonderful reporting going on, but I think people have become anesthetized to the statistics of how many people are being killed and maimed. One of the purposes of making this film was to try and illuminate something of great darkness.
Exactly what do you think you’re shedding light on in the film?
I’m reflecting what has been told to me. I’m the vehicle; the film’s the medium. What we’re showing is that Iraqis are human, they have faces: They’re not statistics. And what are the consequences of an occupation that’s completely bungled. And, it’s a film about war profiteering—not just among the Americans, but the corrupt Iraqi mayor, who’s probably the most corrupt character in the whole movie. Most American soldiers who are there are probably more well-meaning than corrupt, but there are incidents of corruption, abuse of power—like when the soldiers throw the young Iraqis off the bridge.
The footage of ambushes and battles is very news-like in style, very convincing. Where did you shoot? Were you in danger?
We shot in Morocco. It would be too dangerous to shoot in Iraq; you’d be dead in half an hour. Wendy hasn’t been there in several years. She’s writing a book about Iraq now, but it’s impossible for her to cover the story now. Her fiancé, who’s a distinguished Iraqi war photographer—she based the character of Zaid [played by Mido Hamada] on him to some extent—who’s widely recognized and used to going everywhere unarmed and unescorted, now can’t go anywhere without armed body guards. And if he goes out in a Shia neighborhood he’s with Shia bodyguards, or in a Sunni neighborhood, he’s with Sunni bodyguards. And, even then, he’s risking his life.
So, we couldn’t shoot there. It’s a disaster. And I think the film, although it’s been in the works since a couple of years ago, is more relevant now than ever because it takes the microcosm of life in Iraq and shows you why it’s so complicated, why it’s so difficult and why these things happen.
To what extent is Wendy’s script autobiographical?
It’s based on her experiences. These were real people and real experiences, but of course it’s fictionalized and changed—the same way that in literary novels, Graham Greene goes to Vietnam and writes a book like The Quiet American. Or goes to Havana and writes Our Man in Havana. Because if you look at what happens with most American films, they mostly want to reflect the American point of view, so it’s all about soldiers and always written by people who weren’t there. So this is a film that absolutely is about the Iraqis.
