For several months, director Abbas Fahdal filmed a group of Iraqis, mostly members of his family, just before the outbreak of the Iraq War in 2003. The daily lives that have been captured are surprisingly familiar: a summer outing on the river, cartoons on TV, bickering, birthday celebrations.

One of the crucial films about America’s invasion of Iraq, Abbas Fahdel’s extended, engrossing, and profoundly personal saga provides an essential perspective. Fahdel edited the film from hundreds of hours of documentation of his family’s daily life to highlight the harsh realities of the invasion.