The new Netflix war movie Mosul follows an Iraqi SWAT team fighting Islamic State militants in the city of Mosul.
Set over the course of a single day the 101-minute-long film, shot in Morocco, has largely received positive reviews of which you can see a sample of further below.
The film’s characters speak in a local Arabic dialect and the acting has been praised with Major Jasem (Suhail Dabbach) being singled out as the film’s soul.
Mosul was helmed by American Matthew Michael Carnahan on his directorial debut who also penned the film’s script based on a 2017 New Yorker article. The Russo brothers of Marvel fame serve as the film’s executive producers.
JUDGEMENT
“But Carnahan otherwise admirably keeps the references to American culture and the U.S. in general to a minimum. There’s one barbed comment about Americans having a tendency simply to bomb everything in Iraq ‘because they don’t have to rebuild it.’ Indeed, one of the loveliest touches in an otherwise very tough film is the sense that these men are fighting on home ground and for their own city. It is exactly this kind of feeling that’s missing, for obvious reasons, from other U.S.-made films set in the region. This is what sets Mosul apart from its peers.” Boyd van Hoeij, Hollywood Reporter
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“Filled with P.O.V. docudrama camera angles that place us squarely in the middle of the action, Mosul follows a small band of anti-hero renegades in close to real time, as they target the remaining ISIS strongholds in their home city and try to stay alive while also trying to protect the locals. This is a sometimes wrenching and draining film, but it’s also a powerful and ultimately deeply moving tribute to a group of good and decent men who have been emotionally and, in some cases, physically wounded by war but refuse to surrender.” Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun Times
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“Mosul might simply reskin a zillion old tropes, but it does so with immaculate attention to detail. The excellent cast, pulled from the Middle East and North Africa and the displaced Iraqi diaspora, all learned how to speak the specific Arabic dialect that the Nineveh SWAT Team spoke on their raids. Lord of the Rings production designer Phil Ivey was hired to make the Morocco locations match the Mosul look they were trying to convey, and you can feel the broken soul of a city in his sets.” David Ehrlich, Indie Wire
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“Although the film sometimes relies on formulaic imagery to make plain the evils of the Islamic State (orphaned children, impregnated women), it makes up for that predictability with a gripping lead performance from Iraqi actor Suhail Dabbach. As the SWAT team leader Major Jasem, Dabbach is a steely-eyed patriarch, a man who believably switches between killing Islamic State fighters, urging his ‘sons’ and comrades to drink water during their mission, and befriending a young boy they see wandering along a dirt road. Dabbach is the heart and soul of Mosul, making real the unbelievable loss Iraqis have suffered after decades of war and destruction — and the sliver of hope they still hold onto for a better life.” Roxana Hadadi, rogerebert.com
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“This is war as messy, whatever-works guerilla fighting, and it’s as relentless as a pneumatic drill. Playing out almost in real time over what feels like three or four hours, Mosul presents this feral battle as a chaotic middle that has no beginning or end. It’s an approach that leaves little space for emotional arcs, but there’s just enough character interest to keep us engaged. The chief focus is on the toll of fighting in your own city, unsure whether family and friends are safe — or even which side of the shifting battle line they are on.” Lee Marshall, Screen Daily
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“Overall, Mosul is a harrowing war film, directed with urgency, in a way that’s always clearly rendered, and not dependent on shaky-cam techniques. There are also some moments of genuine heartbreak, especially a scene involving a pair of brothers. No, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel in any particular way, or go particularly far afield from the usual conventions of war movies. But Mosul is, overall, a winning effort.” Stephen Silver, National Interest
Watch the official trailer for Mosul below.