This week I am taking a break from the spooky fare that mostly makes up the month of October. For the break I decided to go with a movie that is good enough to deserve its own post. I found this little surprise on Netflix and it is one of the best movies I have seen this year.
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An American made, Iraqi language, Netflix movie written and directed by a a successful Hollywood screenwriter making his directorial debut and featuring an ethnically authentic cast, Mosul (🦛🦛🦛🦛) the true story of The Nineveh SWAT Team has usual pedigree. It takes place in 2016 after the American invasion and subsequent responsive rise of ISIS together turned the city of Mosul into an active war zone. It opens with a devastating gunfight between out gunned, out manned police officers and ISIS fighters. Help comes in the form of The Nineveh SWAT Team. It is on the surface a typical Hollywood opening but this is not a typical movie. After the gunfight they recruit a young police officer on the scene Kawa (Adam Bessa). As Kawa earns his place and his new teammates trust in a world full of loyalty, corruption, fear and greed, we are introduced to that world. War we are reminded creates a vacuum of social stability that unleashes many of humanities baser instincts and like Pandora’s box a few of its nobler ones. Events unfold and it becomes clear that more then just staying alive and hunting down ISIS fighters, which is hard enough, Team Nineveh has a mission. That there is a mission is only revealed late in the picture. The movie is not about “a mission” but the late heart wrenching revelatory scenes show that the mission was the heart of the movie the whole time. The majority in fact plays out in a “day in the life” style and Matthew Michael Carnahan who directed and wrote the script uses this approach touch on many of the elements of everyday life. There is no lack of tragedy, team members die, innocents are killed, atrocities are discussed but nothing is never gratuitous. It makes watching scenes like: a mother carry her dead child in her arms, the completely ignoble death of a SWAT member, the physical after effects of atrocities, that much worse. Think what you will about if America should have invaded Iraq the movie leaves you with no doubts of the devastation it wrought. The opening shootout demonstrates Carnahan’s comfort in the directors chair but the way he shows the cost of the invasion of the average Iraqi citizens in small moments instead of grand speeches is what really impresses. There is team leader Major Jasem (Suhail Dabbach) stoping to clean up garbage when he has a chance. On the surface it seems a futile gesture amid all the destruction and rubble but for Jasem it is an act of ownership and civic responsibility and Dabbach, who gives a brilliant performance, imbues Jasem with a quiet humility that makes you admire the character as much for these small acts as for his noble fight. It is rare for an “action movie” to stop and consider the reality of war in small realistic ways and these little touches make Mosul special. All in it is tragic and noble and heartbreaking and honest. A powerful movie and not what I expected from a movie nestled away in the action section of my Netflix queue. A hidden gem for sure.
Thoughts? Feel free to weigh in!
Where to watch
Steaming on Netflix only
Next week I will post on the 31st with a special Halloween edition with some picks for those too old to Trick or Treat and looking for something spooky to watch. Until then happy viewing.