The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young
Mostly one wishes for a more concise edit that would pull this impressive avalanche of memories and faded photos together a lot sooner.
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Iraq, Switzerland, Germany · 2014
2h 42m
Director Samir
Starring
Genre Documentary
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Tracing the emigrations of his family over more than half a century, this documentary epic from acclaimed expatriate Iraqi filmmaker Samir pays heartfelt homage to the frustrated democratic dreams of a people plagued by the horrors of dictatorship, war, and foreign occupation in Iraq.
The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young
Mostly one wishes for a more concise edit that would pull this impressive avalanche of memories and faded photos together a lot sooner.
The running time of two hours and 43 minutes is unquestionably self-indulgent; thankfully the clan’s charisma keeps attention from lagging too much despite frequent opportunities for trimming.
Los Angeles Times by Martin Tsai
With the mixing of the sprawling family tree with geopolitical imbroglios already proving daunting for viewers, the filmmaker exacerbates the confusion by eschewing a linear chronology.
Heartrending throughout, Iraqi Odyssey is everything you want in a documentary — informative, involving, and eager to decipher complex, often paradoxical historical conundrums. Everything, that is, except visually interesting.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
Watching it is like slowly leafing through a giant scrapbook whose contents include the individual stories of a large extended family.
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