Banin Ahmad Nayef in a still from ‘The President’s Cake’ courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
The Iraqi helmer’s film premiered in Cannes this year and suddenly, I couldn’t imagine a world without its presence. But it was as if one day, Hasan Hadi’s presence and talent exploded onto our consciousness, ready to take his place in the world of cinema greats.
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As well as a feature doc by Iraqi actress and filmmaker Zahraa Ghandour, a web series by Palestinian storyteller Amer Shomali, Damien Ounouri’s and Adila Bendimerad’s follow up to festival fave ‘The Last Queen’, and shorts by Qatari talents Mahdi Ali Ali and Majid Al-Remaihi.
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Back in 2012, I watched and wrote about ‘The List’ a haunting documentary by American filmmaker Beth Murphy. It premiered at Tribeca and immediately became a symbol of the country I called home at the time. President Bush Senior had fought Iraq on the fields of Kuwait, while Bush Junior invaded the country vouching to get back at Saddam Hussein for, and I quote the then President, “this is the guy who tried to kill my father.”
Ever since then, it’s been an unmentionable subject, Iraq. In US news,
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We’ve been tricked by popular cinema, comic books and TV into believing that heroes are mighty and great — lacking all fear and devoid of any fault. It’s easier to write a hero as an all-around perfect man. But in real life, heroes are those who defy their greatest fears to accomplish something which goes beyond anything they could ever have imagined. Real-life heroes don’t lack fear, rather they act in spite of this paralyzing instinct. And their faults usually outnumber their merits, just as they do with any of us, if we get down to the nitty gritty tally of it all.
In fact, I believe that oftentimes, heroes end up being heroes despite their best intentions.
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Chris Hondros/Getty Images; Courtesy of HONDROS Film
Just as the sound of bullets hitting a tin ceiling is heard, a mobile phone rings. "Call me back in about half an hour," says the man answering the phone.
And thus begins 'Hondros' one of the most beautifully terrifying cinematic looks into what it means to be a tried and true photojournalist. The man answer the phone is Chris Hondros. The late, great Hondros, who for years was the man behind the lens of some of the most iconic photographs of our times.
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