Content Advisory: Abuse
The lives of the youth of Baghdad following the 2019 protests are explored in Immortals. Today in Iraq, 60% of the country is under the age of 25. Milo is locked in her house by her father for participating in the 2019 revolution and she ends up sneaking out dressed in her brother’s clothes and dreams of someday leaving the country. Meanwhile, Khalili is a filmmaker, who cannot help but document the protests around Baghdad.
Immortals Synopsis
Immortals is a documentary directed by Maja Tschumi about the lives of youth in Baghdad. The current generation in Iraq knows nothing but war since the events of the 2003 US-led invasion. With the youth now making up the majority of the country’s population, the story of two such youths is told against the backdrop of the 2019 October Revolution.
My Thoughts on Immortals
Immortals takes a cinema verite approach, splitting the narrative between the stories of the subjects Milo and Khalili. Milo’s story is more engaging of the two since she is fighting against becoming an obedient member of Iraq’s patriarchal society. As both Milo and Khalili’s stories are told in their own words, Immortals doesn’t provide much outsider commentary about the current state of Iraq.