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Personal Stories

May 3, 2004

Muthana: A Story Worthy of Hollywood

Muthana Photo: Mary Trotochaud

As an aspiring filmmaker, Muthana has led a life fueled by hopes and dreams—hopes seemingly unattainable and dreams

often unfulfilled. But with the gritty determination of a survivor and the passion of an artist, Muthana has steadfastly pushed his dreams toward reality—an effort helped along by a timely introduction we made between Muthana and filmmakers from MTV.

Muthana grew up as the youngest of three children, under the cloud of war, sanctions, and a brutal regime. Family life presented its own complexities and challenges. Muthana’s father was an officer in the military. His military career ended abruptly after twelve years when he was injured during the Iran-Iraq war and forced to retire.

His mother teaches Arabic in a primary school. Her great love of the Arabic language inspires her to write poetry, and she passed this love and talent on to her youngest child. Muthana’s sister has Down’s syndrome and, at age 30, she lives “in the world of a child.” Their brother has suffered from juvenile diabetes since the age of three, which severely diminished his opportunities to work or marry.

A computer, not a camera

When Muthana finished industrial school, his dream was to go to the College of Fine Arts at Baghdad University and study film. The family had other hopes for their youngest, healthiest child. The realities of life under Saddam also weighed against him.

“My father wanted me to be an engineer,” explains Muthana. “It’s a highly respected profession in Iraq. I hated engineering. But my father felt that, as an engineer, I would be able to get a good job and marry well.”

Muthana’s choices beyond engineering were extremely limited. During the regime years, he needed to have connections to go to film school. And college was the only way to avoid mandatory military service. For Muthana, the military was not an option: “I would never go into the military, not even for one day, one minute. I could not defend Saddam.”

So, engineering school is where he landed.

For four years, Muthana stayed in school, but he did not study or pass his courses, and he barely managed to avoid the military. Much to the chagrin of his engineering professors and the school administration, Muthana established the first theater group at his college. This outlet for creative energy kept his dreams alive, even though it was not filmmaking. At that time, theater was also not free of danger.

“Iraq was a big prison; you had to watch your words and your performance,” Muthana recalls. “You always had to say good things about Saddam. One time I composed a song but I did not mention Saddam, so I got in trouble for writing a song.”

War changes the picture

Muthana’s fourth year in college was ‘make or break’ for him. If he did not pass, he would have to leave college and join the military. Fate intervened.

The war began in March 2003, and Muthana never finished the school year. Saddam’s regime disappeared. After a lifetime of denial in which Iraq’s youth “were desperate, and there was nothing we could do,” Muthana joined other young people to write and publish the Al Muajaha (The Iraq Witness) newspaper. Al Muajaha was born under the guidance of members of Voices in the Wilderness, an advocacy group in the United States and longtime AFSC partner.

With Saddam gone, Muthana decided it was finally time to pursue his dreams. He went to the College of Fine Arts and applied for admission to the film school. The administrators said no, but that only made the dream grow stronger.

Muthana met with the new president of Baghdad University, telling him: “I think my life is in film.” The president granted him an exception, but the Dean of the College of Fine Arts would not allow the exception until Muthana passed an aptitude test.

“I wanted the test,” Muthana insists, “to prove myself.”

He passed with a 90 percent score.

Finally, film school

As schools struggled to reopen, Muthana struggled to start film studies against the wishes of his father—and without his support. This was no small task in his close-knit family. “I had many arguments with my father over this. Maybe I caused much pain for my family,” reflects Muthana. “But I will compensate them, and I will never forget them.”

The difficulties did not end there. Muthana found himself in a film school that had little to offer for making films in the twenty-first century.

“When I went to the College of Fine Arts, I thought my dreams had come true, but there is nothing there but theory,” Muthana says. “There is nothing practical—conditions are primitive, materials are in short supply, and the teachers are stuck in the past.”

The school suffered like everything else during the years of sanctions, with no new facilities, equipment, or access to new teaching methods or materials. In addition, this school was particularly hard hit by the war and the looting that followed. The film school lost all of its archives, its theatre, and its equipment.

Undeterred by all of these limitations at school, Muthana worked as a director’s assistant with a group of fourth year students on a project called The War Shadows. He founded his own group to do a documentary on drug problems in Baghdad, a film that was rejected by seven production companies who said they “could not take a chance on stupid children.”

Opportunity in the midst of chaos

One extraordinary opportunity presented itself during this tumultuous year: MTV sent producers to Iraq to make a documentary on how Iraqi youth were surviving under the dire conditions of post-war occupation.

After interviewing dozens of young people, the filmmakers were captivated by Muthana’s perseverance in pursuing his dream. MTV profiled Muthana and his story was seen by millions of people around the world. An enduring friendship sprang up between the seasoned filmmakers and the aspiring Iraqi director.

The end of this story is really the beginning. Muthana is now in Amman, Jordan, on his way to the Czech Republic. He’ll work there as a personal assistant to the director of a comedy being shot there over the summer—all because the director had seen Muthana’s story on MTV.

The intrepid young Iraqi has traveled alone, with no passport or visa—just pieces of paper with travel permission from the Coalition Provisional Authority, and visas being worked on by the director in the Czech Republic and the filmmakers in the United States.

One year after the war’s anniversary, Muthana has traveled outside of Iraq for the first time. He has flown on a plane for the first time. He has seen the sea for the first time. He is taking big steps toward the dream he never gave up on.

As Muthana left Baghdad, his parents tearfully told him to follow his dream.

New dreams, and old

Muthana recently shared his future hopes and dreams with us: “First dream: that Iraq becomes a better place—peaceful, friendly, with festivals; I want to see festivals in my country. I think the Iraqi people can create these things. They have experienced very much. Second dream: I would like my mother to go to Mecca. With the first money I have, I will send her there. Third dream: my personal dream is very simple—that I make the films that I want and marry a woman that I love.”

AFSC introduced Muthana and many other young people to the MTV film crew. We also advanced the funds that allowed Muthana to travel from Baghdad to Amman.

— Mary Trotochaud

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