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RECYCLE


Directed by | Mahmoud al Massad

Genre documentary  |  Length: 80mins  |  Year of production: 2007


�What makes a terrorist?� In Zarqa, Jordan�s second largest city, this is a muchdebated question. Zarqa�s political Islamists are a force here and Zarqa was the birthplace of Abu Musa al Zarqawi, leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia until he was killed by US forces in 2005. Many here knew al Zarqawi and Zarqa continues to be a source of recruits to the jihad. Inspired by his news reporting on al Zarqawi and Al Qaeda, filmmaker Mahmoud al Massad returns to Zarqa, where he grew up, to make Recycle. With ravishing cinematography, al Massad charts the daily life of a devout man trying to survive in one of Zarqa�s poorest neighbourhoods. The film slowly unravels the hidden agents of terrorism as poverty, humiliation, lack of opportunity and religious doctrine define the daily rhythms of a man and his family, against the back of an age of jihad that spans the globe. In contrast to the dramatic daily headlines about Islam and the �war on terror�, Recycle suggests that evil acts can emerge from the most ordinary of circumstances.