On Hospitality – Layla al Attar and Hotel al Rasheed

At a glance

On Hospitality – Layla al Attar and Hotel al Rasheed, is a 2024 Swedish movie, directed by Magnus Bärtås and Behzad Khosravi-Noori. with a runtime of 18 minutes.

Overview

On Hospitality – Layla al Attar and Hotel al Rasheed is a necromantic documentary in which Iraqi artist Layla Al-Attar returns from the dead to narrate a stranger-than-fiction story. Commissioned by Saddam Hussein, a Swedish company built a luxurious hotel in Baghdad to host the 1983 Non-Aligned Movement summit — only for war to derail all plans. Al-Attar created a mosaic of George Bush's likeness for the hotel entrance, a provocative artistic act with devastating personal consequences: her home was later struck by an American missile. The film is an extraordinary exploration of art, power, complicity, and the violence of history, told through the voice of one of Iraq's most celebrated artists.

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