This film is an intimate epic of life and change in Baghdad over the past 4 years. Told chronologically, it juxtaposes the rhythms and concerns of everyday life with events of historical importance.
It is the story of my large Baghdad family as they struggle to accommodate the massive changes in their lives, in their city, since the fall of the regime in 2003.
My family had suffered through the constraints and losses of dictatorship and had somehow stayed together, survived, borne their scars, and were ready to embrace change when it finally came. Their personal story is a metaphor for the bigger story - a reflection of the enormous upheavals in Iraq since the end of Saddam’s rule. As the film unfolds their mood gradually moves from fragile hope and celebration to a growing sense of disappointment and despair as the situation in the country becomes more chaotic and fragmented and as violence moves ever closer to them.
In his film company dokumentar.no Lie has since 2008 been working as a film director, cinematographer and producer for documentaries. He works with the new Canon EOS 5D/7D with HD film, and edits in Apple's Final cut.
With Haiti mon Amour (Kjære Haiti, hva nå?) Lie went to Port-au-Prince after the earthqake with Ole Paus and others. We followed the money collected by the norwegian consert Dugnad for Haiti and NRK, and then given to Red Cross, Church Aid and UNICEF. It is edited as a low budget film essay, an montage of images. (se video below)
He has since 2007 worked on a documentary portrait – The Seduced Human – Jørgten Leth and Haiti on the danish renowned filmmaker Jørgen Leth (2011). This one-hour documentary is financed so far by the Norwegian Film Institute with 720 000 kroner – and will be released in 2011. (se video below)
Lie is also editor-in-chief for DOX, the leading European quarterly magazine for documentary films, published by the European Documentary Network. See PDFs of the last magaines below.
Lie has been the editor-in-chief and publisher for Morgenbladet between 1993-2003, and has been editor-in-chief/publisher of the Nordic edition of the monthly newspaper Le Monde diplomatique between 2003-08, where he now is still the publisher and regulary film critic.
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