Underexposure

A look at the devastated city of Bagdad through the eyes of a fictional director. Initially the streets contain more burning detritus than people, contributing to the sense of an underpopulated nightmare. Hassan and his crew interview locals, unsure where their film will take them, but unable to impose form on the structurelessness of life in Baghdad itself. Hassan’s home life with wife Maysoon is fraught with tension, as his obsession with recording the hell around him conflicts with her neurotic need to stay inside their apartment. Six months later American soldiers are in control, and while daily activities resume with greater normalcy, Hassan still can’t figure out how to record the uneasy mixture of chaos and fear that grips the city. With film running out and his wife anxious to discover whether their pre-war lives can be resurrected, Hassan struggles to define the emptiness that overwhelms him and his project.