Preview Screening: Recycle

What makes a terrorist? Jordanian/Palestinian filmmaker Mahmoud Al Massad returns to Zarqa, his home town and the birthplace of Abu Musa al Zarqawi the brutal leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, in this stunningly acclaimed documentary that charts the daily life of a religious man in one of the city’s poorest neighbourhoods.

Zarqawi was killed by American forces in 2005. Many in town knew al Zarqawi, many in his family remain, and Zarqa continues to be a source of new recruits to the jihadist cause.

Massad was inspired to make Recycle by the reporting he did for international news agencies. With ravishing cinematography that belies the unforgiving landscape, Recycle slowly unravels some of the hidden agents of terrorism, revealing them as poverty, humiliation, lack of opportunity, and religious doctrine.

Against the backdrop of an age of jihad that spans the globe, these same things define the daily rhythms of a man and his family. Unlike the daily bombardment of dramatic “good and evil” headlines about Islam and the war on terror, Recycle suggests that the potential for evil can emerge quietly in the most ordinary of circumstances.

Official Selection Sundance Festival 2008

Length: 80 mins
Arabic with English subtitles
Directed by: Mahmoud Al Massad
iSee Film
Jordan/USA/Spain