Out of Iraq ***½ (2016, Nayyef Hrebid, Hayder ‘Btoo’ Allami, Michael Failla) – Movie Review

Directors Chris McKim and Eva Orner’s emotionally thrilling 2016 documentary is a great story with a happy ending well told. Usually happy stories don’t make good films, but this one does, as there’s plenty of high drama and conflict and suspense along the way. It’s quite a ride.

It is also both an incredibly heart-warming and important story that gives a huge emotional surge and, above all, hope – hope for a better world and hope for survival and happiness against the odds.

For this is the story of two Iraqi gay men – Nayeff and Btoo – who fell in love in a lethally hostile environment and somehow managed to get Out of Iraq. After endless waiting and hoping, they had no help from the UN, but the Canadians came to the rescue and befriended them.

At the height of the Iraq War, Nayeff becomes a soldier translator for the US Army and meets soldier Btoo  in 2003  in Iraq, a country at war where homosexuality is banned. The two fall in love, and spend years in a covert relationship, risking capture, persecution or death if they stay in their homeland.

Nayeff manages to get a US visa in return for his translator services, and leaves Btoo behind, at the mercy of his homophobic family and country. Nayeff settles in Seattle where he has friends, and Skypes Btoo all the time, making Btoo’s family increasingly suspicious. When things look bleak, Nayeff gets the help of the rich and well-connected American man Michael Failla, who is dedicated to assisting refugees.

Now Btoo runs for his life, deserting the Iraqui army and living illegally in Beirut, till hopefully he can be rescued as a gay refugee and reunited with his lover. If he’s caught, he’ll get sent back to Iraq and be killed. Iraq is in turmoil and videos show gay men being executed as a ‘cure’ for their ‘disease’.

There’s enough politics and information and recent history to keep the viewer up to speed and up to boiling point. But most of the film is about the two incredibly brave and rather lovely men, focusing in tight and close up. They are ready for their close up. They richly deserve their moment in the spotlight.

Showing at BFI Flare, the London LGBT Film Festival, which opens on 16 March 2017.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review

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