The Boys from Baghdad High is a television documentary film, first shown at the 2007 Sheffield Doc/Fest in the United Kingdom. It documents the lives of four Iraqi schoolboys of different religious or ethnic backgrounds at the Tariq bin Ziad High School for Boys in Zayouna, a middle-class neighbourhood in a suburb of Baghdad. It was filmed by the boys themselves over the course of a year in the form of a video diary. They have high expectations and hope to graduate and attend university. They must also deal with increasing sectarian violence, and face the threats of roadside bombings, the hassles of security checkpoints, curfews, and the deterioration of their neighbourhood. The Boys from Baghdad High received high viewership and favourable reviews when it initially aired in the UK in 2008. It was named the Best News and Current Affairs Film at the European Independent Film Festival, won the Premier Prize at the Sandford St. Martin Trust Awards, and was nominated for awards at two film festivals. The documentary also received the Radio Times Readers Award, and a nomination for the Amnesty International 2008 Television Documentary and Docudrama UK Media Award. (Full article...)
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