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Tenfoot Films : London & Hull


The Minders

BBC2 1998

Format : Beta SP

Running Time : 50 mins

Country : UK

Language : English, Arabic

Director : Sean McAllister

Producer: Ben Barker

Editor : Ollie Huddleston

Photography : Sean McAllister

Sound : Sean McAllister

Production Company : BBC and Tenfoot Films

*** Nominated for a Royal Television Society Award

Images from The Minders
The Minders

The Minders

"This extraordinary film was made by Sean McAllister during the last Iraqi crisis (the one defused by the UN's Kofi Annan in person *February 1998).

With air strikes averted, McAllister decided to carry on filming, making a double portrait of his two Ministry of Information minders, Kifah and Alla.

The likeable and decent Kifah, a former English teacher enjoying a rare spell of paid work, is a football mad Anglophile: 'I can't forget Bobby Moore,' he sighs. Alla, Head of Protocol, is a suave ladies' man and pop fan (very taken with Chumbawumba).

McAllister carries on filming Kifah after he is dropped as a minder and in doing so creates an illuminating and touching picture of the man and of everyday life in Iraq."

© Nigel Andrew, The Daily Mail


Reviews: The Minders

© Martin Kramer, Middle East Quarterly, Fall 2001 → 'How can one escape the grip of the ever-present minders, and come away with something authentic? One answer: film them. This is precisely what BBC journalist Sean McAllister did in The Minders.' Read more

Links: The Minders

Après la Guerre - Middle East Quarterly