Advise to Iraki People

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The film material of Advise to Iraki People originates in the relatively peaceful Iraq of 1988, two years before the first Gulf’s War. As the camera is filming from a car, which is driving through Baghdad, a voice-over reads a text in which general advice is given on the safety of children in and around the house:

The protection of children is a priority. Even a small child on a bike should wear a helmet. And a newborn baby on a plane must be strapped to its mother. A child on roller-skates should wear kneepads. And elbow pads. A child on roller skates should wear knee and elbow pads as well as a helmet. Buy one f those plastic things to stop young children opening the drawer in the kitchen: there are knives in it. Don’t give children small mechanical toys: they can swallow the moving parts. It’s tempting, but just don’t do it (…) Your house is a potential war zone for a child.
–Jean-Philippe Convert

Jean-Philippe Convert (1972) was born in France and he studied philosophy in Toulouse. After a number of years in education he applied himself to the writing of fictional stories and the making of video films. Important subjects in his work are the dangers and the consequences of chasing behind a global utopia and the degree to which our image of reality is shaped by the media or reporting by regimes. Convert lives and works in Brussels.