L'Appel de Kerbala
Katia Jarjoura
2005 - 69 min - DV Cam - Couleur - France, Liban

Baghdad, April 2004. As Iraq is daily shaken by current violence, members of the religious Shiite community prepare to brave the road to Kerbala to carry out their annual pilgrimage, which was banned under Saddam's dictatorship. This ritual ends the 40 day-period of mourning which commemorates the death of Mohammed's grandson, Imam Hussein, who was beheaded in 680 AD.
Despite the risk and dangers of the situation, a young Lebanese Canadian woman impassioned by Shiism accompanies the pilgrims on the road.
The road to Kerbala captures her investigative journey on the 110 kilometre-walk from the Iraqi capital to the Shiite capital. Through her vision and the narrative into the heart of the long-oppressed Shiites poet and former political prisoner, we penetrate into the heart of the long-oppressed Shiite community of Iraq.
Along the road, we experience religious and social rituals, political demonstrations, encounters with American soldiers and the peaceful countryside of Iraq.
This personal journey reveals an intimate view of this community, which both embraces death and celebrates life newfound freedom.