Remember Baghdad
Reviews
PETER BRADSHAW, THE GUARDIAN ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Remember Baghdad review - brief, gripping history of Iraq's Jews
There is a potency and pungency to this brief, absorbing documentary about a part of Middle East history that is often passed over: the Jews of Iraq ... It is an intricate, gripping family history.
Click here to read the article
Remember Baghdad review - brief, gripping history of Iraq's Jews
There is a potency and pungency to this brief, absorbing documentary about a part of Middle East history that is often passed over: the Jews of Iraq ... It is an intricate, gripping family history.
Click here to read the article
TOP10FILMS ⭐⭐⭐⭐
New Perspective: "Remember Baghdad" Tells The Untold Story Of Iraqi Jews
"Remember Baghdad is a highly recommended documentary film
...
Stories of persecution, manipulation and barbaric savagery go hand in hand with times of prosperity, harmony and brotherhood. Focusing on the human interest
...
Murphy makes a potentially dry subject very engaging"
Click here to read the article in full
New Perspective: "Remember Baghdad" Tells The Untold Story Of Iraqi Jews
"Remember Baghdad is a highly recommended documentary film
...
Stories of persecution, manipulation and barbaric savagery go hand in hand with times of prosperity, harmony and brotherhood. Focusing on the human interest
...
Murphy makes a potentially dry subject very engaging"
Click here to read the article in full
LITTLE WHITE LIES: CATHERINE PEARSON
A new documentary tells the forgotten story of Iraq's Jews
Peppered amongst personal stories from a community that has long since disappeared, the documentary explains in detail the peaks and troughs of Iraq’s political climate throughout the 20th century, making sense of why some Jewish families fled years before others.
Click here to read the full article
A new documentary tells the forgotten story of Iraq's Jews
Peppered amongst personal stories from a community that has long since disappeared, the documentary explains in detail the peaks and troughs of Iraq’s political climate throughout the 20th century, making sense of why some Jewish families fled years before others.
Click here to read the full article
THE UPCOMING, NOV 16, 2017 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"well crafted, showing a slice of history that has long been forgotten"
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"well crafted, showing a slice of history that has long been forgotten"
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FILMS REVIEWS AND NEWS
'Remember Baghdad' is a not-to-be-missed reflection on the time when when Baghdad's Jewish population referred to themselves as Iraqis, a time when Jews and Arabs were neighbours and friends. Fiona Murphy's fascinating documentary relates how Iraq developed through the eyes of the Jews who lived in Baghdad for 2,600 years until bitterness and hatred destroyed their lives.
Click here to read the full article
'Remember Baghdad' is a not-to-be-missed reflection on the time when when Baghdad's Jewish population referred to themselves as Iraqis, a time when Jews and Arabs were neighbours and friends. Fiona Murphy's fascinating documentary relates how Iraq developed through the eyes of the Jews who lived in Baghdad for 2,600 years until bitterness and hatred destroyed their lives.
Click here to read the full article
ROSA DOHERTY, THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
Refugee who fled Iraq buys a home there
"A Jewish refugee from Iraq has done the unthinkable — gone back and bought a house there"
Click here to read the article
Refugee who fled Iraq buys a home there
"A Jewish refugee from Iraq has done the unthinkable — gone back and bought a house there"
Click here to read the article
IAN BLACK, AUTHOR AND VETERAN MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT FOR THE GUARDIAN
Remember Baghdad is a window on a lost world - Iraq's once vibrant Jewish community - ordinary lives impoverished by politics, intolerance and war. It is also impressive evidence of human determination to keep faith with the past
Remember Baghdad is a window on a lost world - Iraq's once vibrant Jewish community - ordinary lives impoverished by politics, intolerance and war. It is also impressive evidence of human determination to keep faith with the past
RACHEL JOHNSON, AUTHOR AND COLUMNIST FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
A story you never dreamed existed, by a natural film maker.
A story you never dreamed existed, by a natural film maker.
The Other Irish Travellers
Storyville BBC4
THE TIMES: PICK OF THE DAY
Fiona Murphy's beautiful film is a softly-spoken elegy to a lost world. The "Other Travellers" refer to the descendants of Protestants who settled in Ireland in the 1660s in the wake of Cromwell's invasion. They became what Murphy calls "the bad guys of Irish storybooks", toffs abroad who ended up living the lives of isolated and increasingly impoverished English gentry, until the were ejected. Murphy herself is the daughter of one such family, and in this film she returns to the family home in Mayo with her father, uncles and aunts who look back on their extraordinary upbringing in a house with more conflicted loyalties than mod cons.
Fiona Murphy's beautiful film is a softly-spoken elegy to a lost world. The "Other Travellers" refer to the descendants of Protestants who settled in Ireland in the 1660s in the wake of Cromwell's invasion. They became what Murphy calls "the bad guys of Irish storybooks", toffs abroad who ended up living the lives of isolated and increasingly impoverished English gentry, until the were ejected. Murphy herself is the daughter of one such family, and in this film she returns to the family home in Mayo with her father, uncles and aunts who look back on their extraordinary upbringing in a house with more conflicted loyalties than mod cons.
IRISH INDEPENDENT
Catch it if you can! Quite the best documentary of the year, Storyville: The Other Irish Travellers (BBC4) concerned 85-year-old poet Richard Murphy and his four siblings as they recalled growing up in Milford, a country house in Count Mayo that had been in their Anglo-Irish family since the late 17th Century. Filmed, edited and directed by Richard's niece, Londoner Fiona Murphy, this worked marvellously as social and political history while also managing to be an affectionate portrait of her father, two uncles and two aunts, four of whom revisited the scene for the occasion. I only wish I had the space to do it justice, but BBC4 has the good habit of rescreening its programmes, so you can watch out for it in the schedules. Try not to miss it
Catch it if you can! Quite the best documentary of the year, Storyville: The Other Irish Travellers (BBC4) concerned 85-year-old poet Richard Murphy and his four siblings as they recalled growing up in Milford, a country house in Count Mayo that had been in their Anglo-Irish family since the late 17th Century. Filmed, edited and directed by Richard's niece, Londoner Fiona Murphy, this worked marvellously as social and political history while also managing to be an affectionate portrait of her father, two uncles and two aunts, four of whom revisited the scene for the occasion. I only wish I had the space to do it justice, but BBC4 has the good habit of rescreening its programmes, so you can watch out for it in the schedules. Try not to miss it
THE SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE
Fiona Murphy’s poignant film addresses a little-visited subject: Anglo-Irish Protestants. Her own ancestors claimed in the unhappiest of circumstances in the years after Oliver Cromwell’s wretched reconquering of Ireland in 1649. For her father and his four siblings, Ireland was both a place of wild romance and pigs in the parlour, while England represented sophistication, education and all they were supposed to aspire to. In a moving account of a search for belonging and identity, it is clear the conflicted upbringing has remained with them all.
Fiona Murphy’s poignant film addresses a little-visited subject: Anglo-Irish Protestants. Her own ancestors claimed in the unhappiest of circumstances in the years after Oliver Cromwell’s wretched reconquering of Ireland in 1649. For her father and his four siblings, Ireland was both a place of wild romance and pigs in the parlour, while England represented sophistication, education and all they were supposed to aspire to. In a moving account of a search for belonging and identity, it is clear the conflicted upbringing has remained with them all.
THE GUARDIAN GUIDE: PICK OF THE DAY
The ruling castes of empires are not always sympathetic characters, but they usually have a story to tell. Here, Fiona Murphy explores a rarely romanticized variety of Irish history – that of, as she puts it, “landed Protestants who spoke with English accents”. Murphy knows them well; despite her definitively Irish name, she’s descended from them, and quite recently. She takes her father and his four siblings back to the estate in County Mayo which the family left in the 1930s, when their kind became unwelcome in the newly independent Ireland. A thoughtful personalising of history
The ruling castes of empires are not always sympathetic characters, but they usually have a story to tell. Here, Fiona Murphy explores a rarely romanticized variety of Irish history – that of, as she puts it, “landed Protestants who spoke with English accents”. Murphy knows them well; despite her definitively Irish name, she’s descended from them, and quite recently. She takes her father and his four siblings back to the estate in County Mayo which the family left in the 1930s, when their kind became unwelcome in the newly independent Ireland. A thoughtful personalising of history
DAILY MAIL WEEKENDER: PICK
A small, careful look back at the expulsion of the Anglo-Irish Protestant gentry from Ireland, described as ‘a polite version of ethnic cleansing.’ It’s also a portrait of a family, as film-maker Fiona Murphy follows her dad back to the old family estate.
A small, careful look back at the expulsion of the Anglo-Irish Protestant gentry from Ireland, described as ‘a polite version of ethnic cleansing.’ It’s also a portrait of a family, as film-maker Fiona Murphy follows her dad back to the old family estate.
TIME OUT
No burly, tattooed men beating the shit out of each other here, thank goodness. This 'Storyville' is an altogether different kind of documentary, focusing on the Murphy family; part of the Anglo-Irish diaspora, who hung on in County Mayo as the British Empire crumbled about them. Essentially, this is a film about identity and paradox. These were posh, educated Brits with no money: too Irish to fit in easily at the English public schools to which they were sent; too English not to be intimidated by the occasionally hostile locals as the world changed and independence became inevitable. Director Fiona Murphy is clearly devoted to both her quirky family and the land that sustained them - the result is a film that feels equal parts ramshackle, rambling, charming and profound.
No burly, tattooed men beating the shit out of each other here, thank goodness. This 'Storyville' is an altogether different kind of documentary, focusing on the Murphy family; part of the Anglo-Irish diaspora, who hung on in County Mayo as the British Empire crumbled about them. Essentially, this is a film about identity and paradox. These were posh, educated Brits with no money: too Irish to fit in easily at the English public schools to which they were sent; too English not to be intimidated by the occasionally hostile locals as the world changed and independence became inevitable. Director Fiona Murphy is clearly devoted to both her quirky family and the land that sustained them - the result is a film that feels equal parts ramshackle, rambling, charming and profound.
ROY FOSTER
An idiosyncratic, subtle and beautifully shot film about the decline of the Imperial-minded Irish Ascendancy
An idiosyncratic, subtle and beautifully shot film about the decline of the Imperial-minded Irish Ascendancy
LADY ANTONIA FRASER
A fascinating film. I was riveted by it, both by the content and the comparisons to my own family
A fascinating film. I was riveted by it, both by the content and the comparisons to my own family
FERGAL KEANE
A vanished world wonderfully portrayed, lyrical and honest.
A vanished world wonderfully portrayed, lyrical and honest.