Just A Job

u-In a nutshell Samir provides a personal and political reflection on the Gulf War. Like Immer und Ewig (screened in Rotterdam last year) Samir uses advanced video techniques in (It was) Just a Job (the title is a statement by General Schwarzkopf). The complex and stratified video version was eventually transferred to 35 mm to ensure optimal screening. Samir used three kinds of footage. The basis is the well-known War in the Gulf pictures CNN. Over and in these shots, Samir edited home-movie footage of his relatives in Bagdad; Samir is an Iraqi who has lived in Switzerland since he was six. Thirdly he used Iraqi words in calligraphy (and their translations in western dictionaries) which were often used during the war.