Inspired by 2017 New Yorker article “The Desperate Battle to Destroy ISIS” by Luke Mogelson, Mosul is a Netflix war movie set in 2017 about a rogue, Untouchables style SWAT team who are on a seemingly never-ending mission to take down ISIS militants, and take back the titular city. The unit is led by the tough-as-nails Major Jasem (Suhail Dabbach), who invites our audience surrogate Kawa (Adam Bessa) to join after the unit saves Kawa and a fellow police officer in a shootout. Kawa joins seemingly reluctantly as he is not initially comfortable with the team’s brutal and unforgiving tactics, though the needs of the mission don’t give him much time to reflect.
When it comes to Hollywood’s exploration of the war on terror, we never really get any high profile films that take on the perspective of the people who live in these regions. Although, if we’re being honest here, American films in general rarely tackle our country’s global presence in a way that doesn’t prop up the military or focus on a white perspective. However, when you look at the people behind the film, it’s produced by the Russo Brothers, and it’s written and directed by Matthew Michael Carnahan, who is making his directorial debut here after making a name for himself as a screenwriter.
Would it have been better had someone who might have closer ties to the region been the one telling the story? In all likelihood, yes. But during the duration of the film was there ever a moment where I was thinking to myself, “I doubt a scene like this would have been here” or “this doesn’t ring true at all,?” Honestly, no. However, it’s clear from the get-go that this is not going to be some big, meditative film that is going to provide this greater insight to the experiences of the Iraqi people.
Mosul is first and foremost an action film, one that is in the vein of something like Black Hawk Down. It’s a relentless, visceral, it-feels-like-you’re-there war film that follows a single day in the lives of these soldiers in their fight against ISIS militants. Characterization is a bit thin at first, but it makes use of some shorthand that does a lot of heavy lifting, and with the few moments of calm that we do get, there is a strong sense of camaraderie among the guys in the unit that feels on point.
It’s in these quiet moments where I was the most surprised because it’s the little things that add the most. Little details that tell you a lot about the people we’re following without having the filmmakers stop what they’re doing to explain themselves. I’m thinking about Major Jasem’s habit of picking up and throwing away trash at a bunch of the places they go to. A bit ironic considering how much the city is in rubble around them, but taking the time to do one thing to make a room look better and feel more homely is something that matters to him deeply.
Whether the things that occur in Mosul are accurate to how things were with this team, I don’t know, but it feels like it, and it’s just refreshing to see a film like this center on a group of actors who probably would’ve been stuck playing roles like “Arab Man” or “Terrorist #1” in other films with this subject matter, and I think there’s something to celebrate in that. It’s not necessarily a great film, but I do think it is a good one. I liked how it maintained a sense of humanity even in its most bombastic action scenes, and I loved the ending, which avoids going for a big, climactic battle against a singular villain, and instead feels honest in its ability to say that things might not be getting better anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something still worth fighting for. As someone who went into this with a bit of skepticism, I was pleasantly surprised.
Mosul is now available to stream on Netflix.