''My Country, My Country'' is a 2006

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

about Iraq under U.S. occupation by the filmmaker

Laura Poitras Laura Poitras (; born February 2, 1964) is an American director and producer of documentary films. Poitras has received numerous awards for her work, including the 2015 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for ''Citizenfour'', about Edwa ...

Film

Laura Poitras spent over eight months working on her own and for some time following a

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

Civil Affairs team during the elections in

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 ...

filming the documentary. The film shows life in Iraq for average Iraqis under

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

occupation. Poitras focuses primarily on Dr. Riyadh al-Adhadh, an Iraqi medical doctor, father of six and

Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...

political candidate. The film was well received by critics and was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for Best Documentary Feature. The film had a limited U.S. theatrical release. The

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

program ''

P.O.V. ''POV'' (also written ''P.O.V.'') is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) public television series which features independent nonfiction films. ''POV'' is an initialism for ''point of view''. ''POV'' is the longest-running showcase on television ...

'' broadcast the film in October 2006. After completing the film, Poitras claims "Since completing My Country, My Country, I've been placed on the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) watch list" and to have been notified by airport security "that my 'threat rating' was the highest the Department of Homeland Security assigns". The film is one of three in a series, with the second being ''

The Oath The Oath may refer to: Books * ''The Oath'' (Wiesel novel), a 1973 novel by Elie Wiesel * ''The Oath'' (Peretti novel), a 1995 novel by Frank E. Peretti * '' The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court'', a 2012 book by Jeffrey Toobin ...

'' (2010). The third, ''

Citizenfour ''Citizenfour'' is a 2014 documentary film directed by Laura Poitras, concerning Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal. The film had its US premiere on October 10, 2014, at the New York Film Festival and its UK premiere on October 17, 2014, ...

'' (2014), focuses on the NSA's domestic surveillance programs. She is suing the U.S. government over her 40 detentions by US officials.

Reception

Critical response

''My Country, My Country'' has an approval rating of 86% on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 36 reviews, and an average rating of 7.09/10. The website's critical consensus states, "This war documentary offers a valuable look at Iraqi life under the U.S. occupation, and finds a compelling central subject in Dr. Riyadh".

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

assigned the film a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

POV 2006 TV Schedule (https://www.pbs.org/pov/mycountry/)

External links

*
Laura Poitras Featured Video Interview: The Alcove with Mark Molaro
**Alternate Traile

EPIC Ground Truth Project: Interview with Director Laura PoitrasJoe M. O'Connell review in The Austin Chronicle
* * Distributor's webpage. * * {{Laura Poitras 2006 films 2006 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about the Iraq War American independent films POV (TV series) films Films directed by Laura Poitras 2000s English-language films 2000s American films

Film

Reception

Critical response

See also

References

External links