Watching a great sport documentary can be truly exhilarating. Hollywood has always had a way with molding sports into an easily digestible narrative, but watching real life individuals face these same challenges elevates the raw emotion on display tenfold. This is not just because of the particular event on display; documentaries allow you to wander into the hearts and minds of the players to reveal what that game or match means to them in a larger context. There is an artistry to a well-performed sporting event, but any good fan will tell you that the narrative behind the event is what gets you truly invested. In Hands of God, we follow a group of young men who are fighting their hearts out to earn a place on their country’s boxing team at the 2016 Olympics. This story itself could make for a very entertaining and inspiring documentary, but add in the fact that the country in question is a war-torn Iraq, and you have something that is truly compelling.
The documentary weaves in and out of the lives of many hopeful young fighters on the team, but the primary focus is on Waheed, Jafaar, and Saadi. These three appear to be the best shot Iraq has at qualifying for the Olympics for the first time in decades, and they desperately want to bring honor to their country. As is quickly shown, though, actual talent in the ring is not the only obstacle that stands between themselves and glory. Every so often, a tragically large number appears on screen to note how many people were killed in the latest suicide bombing in the city. Blown out cars and blood-stained roads are shown in the aftermath while the citizens try to piece back together their lives from these horrific events. These tragedies are commonplace, but that does not make it any less heartbreaking when an informational card comes up to inform us that members of the team have either been killed or left to join the fight. There is a scene early in the film with a van of teammates chanting for the downfall of ISIS. You can feel how passionate these young men are about protecting their country that has been so ravaged by violence, but you so wish they could just focus on boxing.
Life cannot be that easy, though, can it? Waheed is quite skilled in the ring, but he barely has time to hone his skills due to his obligations to the army. In one particularly frustrating moment, you learn that he was unable to attend a particularly important qualifying event because he could not get time off from his position. Likewise, the young promising heavyweight Saadi goes from being a presumed favorite to qualify to being tapped to be on a mission to liberate Falluja. With all of the destruction in the film, watching a young star like Jafaar emerge feels precarious with his home being in the most dangerous suburb in the world. Things can change at a moment’s notice for our subjects, which makes the ups and downs that much more volatile. Hands of God does a great job of getting you invested in each of their stories. It can be a bit of a tough road with few moments of triumph, but the humanity that is revealed is worth the experience. One of the key examples of this is when we hear one of these young men venting their frustration at being persecuted and rooted against just for being from Iraq. They want a peaceful Iraq more than anyone, and hopefully this documentary will convince some people to root for them next time out.
Video Quality
Hands of God comes to DVD with a decent 480p transfer that suits the movie well. This project was a low-budget labor of love with interviews and fly-on-the-wall shots that strive for authenticity rather than anything glossy, which provides different levels of visual quality. The more stable shots outside of competition venues look noticeably better than the on-the-street footage at the site of the bombings. Skin tones look natural and details hold up fairly well. Colors are a bit flat and black levels are subject to some crush and compression artifacting. This film is visually not a knockout, but it gets the information across that it needs to in an efficient and visceral way.
Audio Quality
The DVD comes with a Dolby Digital 5.1 track that does everything it needs to do well. The film is presented in Arabic accompanied by English subtitles. Dialogue is pretty consistently clear throughout with only occasional moments where overlapping conversations get a bit muddled. This is not really an issue thanks to the subtitles, though. Surround speakers open up the world pretty spectacularly in the hectic crowd sequences, both in the heart of the city and at the matches. This presentation is about as good as the source material will allow.
Special Features
- Trailer: A minute-and-a-half trailer that perfectly encapsulates what you get from the film.
Final Thoughts
Hands of God is not always the easiest film to watch, but witnessing what these men have to experience on a daily basis is honestly quite powerful. The documentary is structured very well with emotional highs and lows that keep you transfixed. You already know whether or not you are the type of person that finds the idea of a foreign, war-centric sports documentary worthy of your time. If the subject sounds interesting to you, you will probably find it just as compelling as I did. Film Movement has provided a pretty nice presentation for this film on DVD.
Hands of God is currently available to purchase on DVD and Digital.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the DVD.
Disclaimer: Film Movement has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
