Farewell Baghdad
Promotional poster
Arabicمطير الحمام
Directed byNissim Dayan
Written byNissim Dayan
Produced byDavid Mandil, Dov Keren, Moshe Edri, Leon Ederi, Hezi Bezalel, Omri Bezalel
StarringDaniel Gad
Yigal Naor
Uri Gavriel
Ahuva Keren
Yasmin Ayun
Menashe Noy
Eli Dor Hayim
Ron Shahar
Mira Awad
CinematographyShai Goldman
Edited byAsaf Korman
Music bySharon Farber
Release date
  • May 13, 2013 (2013-05-13) (Israeli Film Academy)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryIsrael
LanguageJudeo-Iraqi Arabic

Farewell Baghdad (Hebrew: מפריח היונים, lit. The Dove Flyer; Arabic: مطير الحمام, romanized: Muṭayr al-Ḥammām) is an Israeli film based on the novel with the same name, by Iraqi-born Jewish writer Eli Amir. The film was directed by Nissim Dayan, who also wrote the screenplay. The idea for the film was conceived by actress Ahuva Keren, and the script was translated by her into Judeo-Arabic. The making of the film was completed in 2013, but the film itself was commercially released in April 2014.

Over nearly two hours, and through the story of a 16-year-old Jewish boy, Farewell Baghdad depicts the story of the last days of the Baghdad Jewish community of the 1950s, and on the eve of the Aliyah of almost all of that community to Israel in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah. At that time, The Kingdom of Iraq was struggling to overcome its defeat in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War against the nascent State of Israel, and was torn between Royalism, separatism and communism. On the other hand, the world's oldest Jewish community, which numbered at the time about a sixth of the population of the capital of Baghdad, also grappled between their historical and cultural relationship with the Iraqi people, the growing support for the communist movement, and their solidarity with the State of Israel and Zionism.

Farewell Baghdad is the first Judeo-Arabic-language film in the history of cinema (specifically, Baghdad Jewish Arabic),[1] and as traditionally is with the Jews of Iraq, it is inserted with phrases from the scriptures (such as "Bar Minan", "Tisha B'Av" etc.) in their traditional Iraqi Hebrew pronunciations. When the Jewish characters talk with Arab Muslims, the dialect changes slightly and becomes a Muslim Iraqi Arabic.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "ראיון: כשבמאי ישראלי עושה סרט עיראקי". 10 April 2014 – via Haaretz.
  2. ↑ חינוכית ראשונים בעולם (9 April 2014). "מפריח היונים: התרבות הערבית של יהודי עיראק" – via YouTube.


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