Last night was the opening night of Thom Powers’ Stranger Than Fiction screening series at the IFC Center in NYC. He presented Nina Davenport’s Toronto premiere Operation Filmmaker, which he said was his favorite film among the 40 he programmed at the fest. Obviously with that kind of introduction, you have to wonder what could possibly happen? The basic outline is that a young Iraqi, Muthana, was featured in a segment on MTV telling US audiences, which happened to include actor/director Liev Schreiber, about how his film school was destroyed and his passion for filmmaking that had to remain dormant during the war until buildings could be rebuilt and supplies like cameras could start flowing back into the country.

Liev, who comes across as a genuinely kind-hearted guy, wants to help Muthana realize his dream so he brings him to the Czech Republic to work as an intern on Everything is Illuminated. He and the film’s producer, Peter Saraf, hire Davenport to document Muthana’s experience in an (unstated) PR stunt running concurrently to the film’s production. Everyone agrees that Muthana has been given an extraordinary opportunity that he proceeds to squander when he gripes about such tasks as getting snacks while a pivotal scene is being shot.

Of course, the Americans involved in Muthana’s life and those of us watching, have a lot of guilt about the mess that our government has made in Iraq. We are hoping that Muthana will assuage us by surpassing our expectations despite his hardships. And at the same time, he is a young man accustomed to his mother doing his cooking and cleaning, to not working for belongings, and to being driven around by the family’s driver in Baghdad. You might think I’m giving a lot away about the film’s plot but this is actually Act I, merely the set up to what follows after the production of Everything is Illuminated wraps and Liev and crew head back to the States without Muthana and Davenport stays behind.

Davenport’s films have all included her as a character, and as she quipped during Q&A, she meant to not have that happen this time around. She couldn’t, however, stand by idly when someone she had developed a relationship with was floundering. Muthana needed help, understandably, but the film becomes a treatise on the filmmaker/subject relationship and how difficult the situation can become when scales tip to a largely unequal relationship. Of course, the whole situation gets murkier because of Muthana’s nature—he doesn’t steal or hurt anyone, but he could be labeled manipulative and unmotivated. What exactly does he want? To become a filmmaker? An actor? I’m not sure we’ll ever know anything about the real Muthana, but Davenport once again comes across as genuine.

The film is in turns humorous and tense. Nina has a great eye and often places her lens in the best spot for maximum emotional potential, so it is lovely to watch, if the story comes across as frustrating.

I have a new column coming out in indieWIRE shortly and in it, I mention a film, Stranger With a Camera, that had a big influence on me. One of the central themes of that film is similar to Operation Filmmaker—what is the relationship of the filmmaker to the individuals and communities they portray? What is their responsibility in what is so often an unequal relationship? Anyone have other films to recommend that deal with this theme?