Mosul

In 2016, as ISIS tightened its grip on Mosul, a small band of police officers refused to surrender. Their story, told in Matthew Michael Carnahan's war drama Mosul, follows the Nineveh SWAT team as they fight a desperate guerrilla campaign to reclaim their city from the extremists who had overrun it. The film, based on a 2017 New York Times article by Luke Mogelson, brings a rare Iraqi perspective to the screen, with a mostly Middle Eastern cast led by Suhail Dabbach as the weary commander Jasem and Adam Bessa as a young recruit named Kawa.

Carnahan, making his directorial debut after writing films like The Kingdom and Deepwater Horizon, shot the movie on location in Morocco, with a budget reported around $20 million. The production, backed by Joe and Anthony Russo's AGBO, favors gritty realism over Hollywood gloss, using handheld cameras and natural light to immerse viewers in the chaos of urban combat. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 before landing on Netflix, where it found a wider audience. Critics praised its tense action sequences and its refusal to paint either side in broad strokes, though some noted the story's narrow focus. With a 6.7 rating on TMDB, Mosul stands as a tense, humanizing look at a conflict often reduced to headlines. [edit]

The film drops us into the middle of a firefight in the streets of Mosul, 2016. Kawa, a young police officer, is pinned down with his patrol when ISIS fighters surround them. Just as the extremists move in for the kill, a heavily armed unit appears and mows them down. These men are the Nineveh SWAT team, an elite police force that has stayed behind to fight after the Iraqi army collapsed. Their leader, Jasem, is a battle-hardened veteran with a quiet intensity. He saves Kawa's life and, seeing the young man has nowhere else to go, reluctantly lets him join the unit.

What follows is a series of missions that take the squad deeper into enemy territory. They clear buildings, rescue civilians from execution sites, and ambush convoys. The team is a mix of backgrounds: Waleed, a medic who carries a quiet dignity; Colonel Kaveh Afsahani, an Iranian officer who brings tactical expertise; Amir, young and eager; Hooka, a chain-smoking veteran; and Kamal, among others. Each man has lost something to ISIS, and their bond is forged in shared trauma. As they push forward, they encounter the harsh realities of occupation: mass graves, booby-trapped homes, and the constant threat of informants. The squad is wary of the Iraqi Army, which they see as corrupt and ineffective, and they operate with a ruthless efficiency that blurs the line between soldier and vigilante.

The narrative is driven by the tension between the external war and the internal struggles of the men. Jasem carries a personal mission: he is hunting a specific ISIS commander responsible for atrocities in his neighborhood. This vendetta begins to color the unit's decisions, and Kawa starts to question whether they are fighting for liberation or revenge. The film also explores the squad's relationship with the civilian population, who view them with a mix of hope and suspicion. Through quiet conversations about family, faith, and the future of Iraq, the men reveal their humanity amidst the chaos.[edit]