A GENERATION OF HATE
"should be mandatory viewing for anybody who cares about the current crisis in the Middle East” - Toronto Star
“Documentaries from Shelley Saywell always hit hard and hit home…” - Broadcast Week
Part 1
A whole generation has been raised on the bitter seeds of the Gulf War. The demise of Saddam will come sooner or later. But the people of Iraq, many under the age of 15, have not only had to pay for his crimes, but have also had to endure more than a decade of punitive sanctions. The result is a Third World country among the poorest in the world.
Still living under the long shadow of Saddam’s secret police, the population is isolated and terrorized. Added to this are the deprivations imposed on them by 12 years of international sanctions, a ruined economy, a broken infrastructure, unsanitary water and, now, fear of yet another war with the United States. While Saddam is feared, reviled, and wished gone, America is blamed for creating him, and hated for betraying the Iraqi people. As the war clouds loom, this sentiment runs very deep.
Part 2
Generation Ex-Saddam: Emmy-award winning filmmaker Shelley Saywell returns to post-war Iraq to follow up on her critically-acclaimed documentary Generation of Hate, which tapped in to the hearts and minds of youg Iraqis on the eve of war, giving viewers a rare glimpse of life behind the Saddam posters.
““Generation of Hate is a documentary that should be mandatory viewing for anybody who cares about the current crisis in the Middle East. Or maybe it should be mandatory viewing for those who don’t.””
““Saywell’s minimalist, unflinching style is the backbone of Generation Ex-Saddam. She takes her camera back to Iraq, now a sprawl of burned out buildings. There are eerie scenes…chilling stories of revenge killings and rape… Once again framed through the eyes of that shattered countries young people, who will be left to pick up the pieces.””
““Documentaries from Shelley Saywell always hit hard and hit home. This one does it early as it looks at children growing up in Iraq…””
BISHARI Film Productions Inc. 2003©