Iraqi Odyssey
In Partnership With New Haven Free Public Library
Documentary, 2014, No Rating / 2h 42m

May's Free Friday Films selections are complimentary to the NEA Big Read Program’s 2024 selection, “The Best We Could Do” by Thi Bui. The book chronicles Thi Bui's parents' life before and during the Vietnam War, their escape from Vietnam when Bui was a child, and their eventual migration to the United States as refugees. Our film selections tell diverse stories about migration and immigration all over the world and the scope of experiences this brings, from hardships and pain to love and unexpected kinship.

Tracing the emigrations of his family over more than half a century, this riveting 3D documentary epic from acclaimed expatriate Iraqi filmmaker Samir pays moving homage to the frustrated democratic dreams of a people successively plagued by the horrors of dictatorship, war, and foreign occupation.