THE LIBERACE OF BAGHDAD BBC Two: Thursday 25 January 2007 11.20pm-12.30am
Award-winning portrait of Iraq, as Sean McAllister spends eight months with Baghdad's most famous pianist, Samir Peter; reduced to playing in a hotel bar and watching chaos unfold. Watch Sean and Samir interviewed on Breakfast
DIRECTOR INTERVIEW Sean McAllister
"I was the only person that hadn't been kidnapped"
HAVE YOUR SAY
Share your thoughts with Sean and Samir
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Nick Fraser
Storyville Series Editor
Sean McAllister went to Iraq under the pretext of finding out whether it was possible to film Saddam Hussein's trial. However, he came back with something wholly different. He met the Liberace of Baghdad - Samir Peter, who used to play the piano for the Baghdad Symphony Orchestra but has found himself in the past year entertaining journalists and security guards in a hotel bar.
Lest this sound like Casablanca, let me add that Samir's family appear in the film. His son acquires a Kalashnikov, and his daughter reveals herself to be a supporter of Saddam Hussein. These scenes are a bit like Till Death Us Do Part - but with a liberal Alf Garnett.
Samir is wholly charming, and he worries as much about Sean's future as he does about the larger picture of Iraq imploding around him.
Scene after scene contains the most astonishing, moving material. They get lost one night on what has the reputation of being the most dangerous road in the word. And then they get stopped… But I won't spoil the rest for you.
