''Farewell Baghdad'' ( he, מפריח היונים, lit. ''The Dove Flyer''; ar, مطير الحمام, Muṭayr al-Ḥammām) is an Israeli film based on the novel with the same name, by Iraqi-born

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

writer

Eli Amir Eli Amir ( he, אלי עמיר; Arabic:ايلى عمير) (September 26, 1937) is an Iraqi-born Israeli writer and civil servant. He served as director general of the Youth Aliyah Department of the Jewish Agency. Biography Amir was born Fuad Elia ...

. The film was directed by Nissim Dayan, who also wrote the screenplay. The idea for the film was conceived by actress Ahuva Keren, and the script was translated by her into

Judeo-Arabic Judeo-Arabic dialects (, ; ; ) are ethnolects formerly spoken by Jews throughout the Arabic-speaking world. Under the ISO 639 international standard for language codes, Judeo-Arabic is classified as a macrolanguage under the code jrb, encomp ...

. The making of the film was completed in 2013, but the film itself was commercially released in April 2014. Over nearly two hours, and through the story of a 16-year-old Jewish boy, ''Farewell Baghdad'' depicts the story of the last days of the Baghdad Jewish community of the 1950s, and on the eve of the

Aliyah Aliyah (, ; he, עֲלִיָּה ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel, which is in the modern era chiefly represented by the Israel, State of Israel ...

of almost all of that community to Israel in

Operation Ezra and Nehemiah From 1951 to 1952, Operation Ezra and Nehemiah airlifted between 120,000 and 130,000 Iraqi Jews to Israel via Iran and Cyprus. The massive emigration of Iraqi Jews was among the most climactic events of the Jewish exodus from the Muslim World. T ...

. At that time, The Kingdom of

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

was struggling to overcome its defeat in the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...

against the nascent

State of Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, and was torn between

Royalism A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...

, separatism and

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

. On the other hand, the world's oldest Jewish community, which numbered at the time about a sixth of the population of the capital of Baghdad, also grappled between their historical and cultural relationship with the Iraqi people, the growing support for the communist movement, and their solidarity with the State of Israel and

Zionism Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a Nationalism, nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is ...

. ''Farewell Baghdad'' is the first Judeo-Arabic-language film in the

history of cinema The history of film chronicles the development of a visual art form created using film technologies that began in the late 19th century. The advent of film as an artistic medium is not clearly defined. However, the commercial, public scree ...

(specifically,

Baghdad Jewish Arabic Baghdad Jewish Arabic ( ar, عربية يهودية بغدادية, ) or autonym haki mal yihud (Jewish Speech) or el-haki malna (our speech) is the Arabic dialect spoken by the Jews of Baghdad and other towns of Southern Iraq. This dialect diff ...

), and as traditionally is with the Jews of Iraq, it is inserted with phrases from the scriptures (such as "Bar Minan", "

Tisha B'Av Tisha B'Av ( he, תִּשְׁעָה בְּאָב ''Tīšʿā Bəʾāv''; , ) is an annual fast day in Judaism, on which a number of disasters in Jewish history occurred, primarily the destruction of both Solomon's Temple by the Neo-Babylonian E ...

" etc.) in their traditional Iraqi Hebrew pronunciations. When the Jewish characters talk with Arab Muslims, the dialect changes slightly and becomes a Muslim Iraqi Arabic.

External links

References

2013 films 2010s historical drama films Films based on Israeli novels Israeli historical drama films 2010s Arabic-language films Jewish Iraqi history Films set in Baghdad {{Israel-film-stub