'Mosul': Russo Brothers production about the 'Avengers' of Iraq is unlike any Hollywood war film you've seen
Written and directed by Matthew Michael Carnahan and produced by Anthony and Joe Russo, 'Mosul' pulls you in and never lets you go. This is in part because of the brilliant cast of actors lead by Suhail Dabbach as Major Jasem as the veteran, Waleed, his second-in-command, and Adam Bessa as the rookie Kawa.
But the core strength of this movie is the script and directorial choices of Matthew Michael Carnahan who makes an assured debut as a director. War films tend to blend into each other, especially Hollywood war films. Even productions like 'Hurt Locker', while cinematic spectacles, is obsessed with the guts and glory of it all with no real stakes except the red mist of violence and flashy action set pieces.
'Mosul' on the other hand blooms in its moments of quiet, like when the SWAT team of Iraqi fighters watch a Kuwaiti soap in an abandoned building just before Kawa's ex-police partner betrays their location to the Daesh (ISIS). These brief moments of respite tell you all you need to know about these men.
Kawa acts as the audience surrogate who, at first, views them with suspicion. But as they go on further and further into the hellish landscape, he understands -- these are Mosul's sons who are sick of it all. Of surviving the years under Sadaam's dictatorship, the false promise of American 'freedom' that flattens everything because they "don't have to rebuild", the Daesh who have wounded them or killed and torn apart their families, of the Iranian soldiers of war waiting to usurp the land after the ISIS, has been pushed out.
Major Jasem systematically picks up trash (discarded bottles, plastic, scraps) and puts it in bins wherever they stop, as if trying to clean up the ruined city, filled with rubble and debris, single-handedly. It is a ritualistic act of trying to save the city he was born in.
Wherever they go, they pass by abandoned children, their parents dead or dying. The Major stops to rescue two boys, like he rescued Kawa, his kindness contrasting with the savagery he displays otherwise. For instance, when a teen ISIS fighter is mortally wounded by them, Kawa takes out his ax to finish him but Major Jasem tells him not to. "Let him suffer," he says casually, before continuing to discuss the best plan of attack with Waleed.
Children sitting on rubble, shot in the crossfire, walking towards the safe zone are littered across this film's landscape. You only realize the significance of this at the very end with Kawa, whose journey intersects with the team's mysterious "mission" that sees them go block by block to their reach their target. A door for which Waleed holds the key is the end-goal but we won't spoil what is behind this door because it is worth watching this film for. It is what makes the penny drop as you understand in your bones why these men do what they do in the "shit part of town", dying like flies, with no regard for their lives. It is what you would do too.
'Mosul' is available to stream on Netflix from November 26.
