Violence in Iraq. Early 1960's. Iraqis on the busy streets of Baghdad. Sellers in a marketplace. Really good panning shot of an Iraqi street as filmed from the back of a moving vehicle. A policeman/traffic warden stands in a street and holds up his arms, facing the camera. A few cars drive on the street. Wonderful shot of a harbour, overlooked by a mosque, where traders load up a variety of boats. Men dig in a mine, women balance trays of minerals on their heads, while a man in the foreground sieves sand and rocks. Really good shots of horses pulling chords that operate water troughs. Two men operate heavy machinery in an oil rig. Good shots of the oil drilling equipment. Officials supervise activity in the oilfield. Several workmen congregating around a large oil pipe in the ground. Close-up of rich-looking Sheikh types overseeing the work. A workman wears a protective mask and operates a blowtorch to repair the pipe. Shot of the oilfield, where the camera has been positioned to get a shot of the land, as seen between two pipes. High-angle view of several large storage oil drums, while a car drives along the adjacent road. High-angle shot of the oil refinery buildings. Shot inside the refinery of the tall machinery and pipes. A royal horse-drawn procession rides through an Iraqi street (Bagdad or Baghdad?). King Faisal II and an accompanying person in royal dress sit in a horse-drawn carriage, that comes to a stop. Around 40 soldiers all dressed in white stand to attention by the King's carriage, while other military types salute and hold flags. Faisal and companion get out of their carriage. A desk topped with microphones at an indoor press conference. Faisal and officials walk through a door and up to the desk. He wears a military dress uniform. Faisal stands for photographs at the press conference. New footage of Faisal wearing a suit at some kind of outdoor ceremony. He walks away from his car accompanied by aides. Faisal walks along a path laid out for him, shaking several hands. There are many people at the ceremony, and it is notable that virtually all of them wear westernised suits or military uniforms - none seem to be wearing traditional Arab clothes. Faisal conducts some kind of opening ceremony by cutting a ribbon. Footage of Faisal in military dress uniform at an indoor official function, meeting Saud bin Abdul Aziz, then King of Saudi Arabia. Members of Saud's entourage sit in the function room, looking solemn. They wear Keffiyehs (traditional Arab head-dresses) and white robes. Faisal and Saud sit and talk to one another. Army and airforce officers seized control of Iraq in 1958, with accompanying images of planes flying in formation, shot from the ground, and a tank driving down a road. Cheering soldiers line a Baghdad street. The army leader of this coup, Abd al-Karim Qasim, is seen standing solemnly on a porch, with some officials. A tank travels down a street, Qasim is seen welcoming an Arab dignitary of some kind. Qasim and the dignitary sit in on a sofa together while cameramen film them. We are given a close-up of Qasim's smiling face, Another officers' coup d'etat killed and overthrew Qasim. We see the inside of a room containing the bloodied corpses of Qasim and two others. What appears to be Qasim's corpse is briefly seen being carried through a street on a stretcher. This coup enhanced the position of Gamal Abdel Nasser.' This man, Egypt's President, is seen in a large hall, walking up to a podium to give a speech to an applauding audience. He smiles and informally salutes them. Panning shot of the crowd clapping. Nasser begins to speak. Anwar Sadat stands near him. Iraq's new president, Abdul Salam Arif, is seen in military uniform, walking up a set of steps. He turns away from the camera and waves at an unseen crowd. The camera cuts to the cheering crowd, but it looks as though this shot may have been edited in from a separate occasion. At night, Arif stands by a microphone and reads out a speech. Shot of a massive cheering crowd in daytime. Arif gives another speech from a platform, this time seen during the day. Lots of smiling Arabs have congregated in a crowd, and the cameraman pans round to film them from fairly close-up. They smile and wave at the camera. Some are military, others are civilian. Two soldiers sit on top of a tank in a Baghdad street. Shots of traffic in Baghdad, and soldiers stopping and searching cars at a roadblock. Militia men carry on the search for communist infiltrators, over 100,000 of whom entered Baghdad during Qasim's regime. Mugshot picture of an Arab man. A poor-looking Iraqi rides a horse down a Baghdad street. Three armed soldiers stand powerfully in front of a tank parked in the street. Soldiiers continue searching cars at the roadblock, and an armed man in civilian clothes looks on. Soldiers stand in the street by a parked military jeep and stroll around. The parked tank is seen again shot from further back.

• published: 20 Sep 2013
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