The Mad Songs of Fernanda Hussein

Shot piecemeal over several years, Boston based writer-helmer John Gianvito's indie feature emerges an unusually ambitious, quietly involving drama about the Gulf War's impact on three very different New Mexico residents. Divided into three sections, though the stories eventually cross paths, the pic begins as Mexican American single mother Fernanda Hussein (Thia Gonzales) panics over the disappearance of her two children – whose bodies we've already seen dumped by unknown assailants into the Rio Grande. Though her husband returned to his native Egypt some time ago, Fernanda has been the target of harassment as vitriol crests against her namesake-by-marriage, Iraq dictator Saddam. Handsome young Carlos (actual Gulf War Marine Corps vet Robert Perrea, a charismatic acting natural) gets a hero's welcome after his Middle Eastern tour of duty, but he's unable to readjust to civilian life, soon losing himself in drink, drugs, and sex-for-hire. In Mad Song's final chapter a teen (Dustin Scott) alienates his well-to-do parents by vigorously opposing U.S. actions in the Persian Gulf. Eschewing excess melodrama and overt preachiness, Mad Songs makes no secret of its dismay at this chapter in American history: the war is viewed as a needless military farrago that wreaked environmental and human havoc and brought out the worst kind of jingoistic "patriotism" from an overwhelming U.S. majority. This slow-moving, photographically rich docudrama sports a thematic ambition and character generosity that render the film's nearly three-hour length well worth the patience demanded.