Return to the Land of Wonders  (2004)

Theatrical Release Information:
Return to the Land of Wonders

In the 1960s, Adnan Pachachi was Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, and when the United States removed Saddam Hussein from power in 2003, Pachachi was appointed to the committee formed to create a new constitution for the nation. His daughter, filmmaker Maysoon Pachachi, had not seen Iraq in 35 years when she received word of her father's new assignment, and she returned to the land of her birth to watch Adnan and his colleagues attempt to craft a new regulatory instrument. As Adnan and his fellows find themselves caught between pressures of the United States government and the wishes of Iraq's sectarian community, Maysoon looks back at the Iraq she used to know and interviews people on the street to get a perspective on the confused and fractured nation Iraq has become. Return to the Land of Wonders is the documentary that resulted from Maysoon's journey, and offers a perspective on what she saw as well as the slow and uncertain progress of the new Iraqi government. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide