As a sports fan, I was surprised that I learned so much from “Lions of Mesopotamis” director Lucian Read’s documentary about a the Miracle of 2007, when the underdog Iraqi football (soccer) team won the Asian Cup. The victory is a legendary source of pride for Iraqis, and it’s not just because football is the #1 sport in their country.
Read paints a thorough picture with his incredibly well constructed and expertly crafted documentary. His storytelling is fantastic, as he gets the right mix of information and entertainment. This is the type of documentary where I learned so much and enjoyed every minute.
Sports fans and athletes will relate the most to this documentary of course, but it’s a universal underdog story of national pride and liberation. Even under the harshest of circumstances, sports bring immeasurable joy to so many.
By interviewing journalists, fans, and the players themselves, the film retraces the steps that transformed the team into an icon and the competitors into idols.
It is compelling to hear these men tell their story in their own words as they paint a picture of what it was like living during a time of sanctions (when the population was starving and in serious crisis), through a bloody civil war, their firsthand accounts of the horrors they witnessed during the U.S. invasion in 2003, their time ruled by the psychopath Uday Hussain (who tortured players if they lost games), and their blunt discussions of the lingering anger towards George W. Bush for taking credit for the Iraqi team being able to participate in the Olympics.
The stories of those who had nothing, be it a lack of food, clothing, shelter, or security are of course upsetting. But at a time when many Iraqis had so little, they still had football, and they had this team, a beacon of hope that succeeded where all others failed.
“Lions of Mesopotamia” is a tale of violence and death, but also one of triumph and joy about an underdog team that not only united a community of sports fans, but united an entire country.
By: Louisa Moore
Screen Zealots 