Transnational Film and the US Wars in Iraq & Afghanistan

Book excerpt: This book offers insights into diverse non-American national perspectives on the US-led military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq within the generic frames of the war film. While the best-known films about the post-9/11 wars in the Middle East are American productions, various other national cinematographies have responded to these conflicts, which is not surprising given the fact that international coalitions were formed to support the US military effort. However, non-American war films about these US-instigated interventions have received little attention outside their own national contexts. This volume fills in the gap in the existing war film criticism by offering insights into how the Afghanistan War (2001–2021) and the Iraq War (2003–2011) have been represented in popular and documentary filmic productions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, Poland, Spain, and Australia. The contributions prove the need for transnationalism as an eye-opening perspective on the war film genre by underscoring nationally-specific social, political and aesthetic differences alongside important correspondences between cultural productions across nations. Transnational film and the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be a key resource for scholars and researchers of film studies, media and cultural studies, film history, war studies, literary criticism and sociology. It was originally published as a special issue of Journal of War & Culture Studies.