Syriana

Stephen Gaghan, USA, 2005, 126 minutes

You thought you knew how the world is being run? Think again...

When a major oil deal is being finalised somewhere in the Middle East, a royal family, who owns the oil fields, big western corporations and CIA act as small pieces of a huge machine of world trade, put in motion by big money and big politics. Syriana atempts to present this process by following an exprienced CIA Agent (Clooney's Oscar-winning role), an energy expert (Damon) and a corporate lawyer (Wright), who all try to fit into this puzzle. However, they realise quickly that, simillarily to us, they are like ants in an anthill - almost worthless compared to the system that they are part of.

Thanks to Syriana we can see a world that most of us know nothing or very little about – endless deserts with enormous oil refineries, exclusive spanish palaces owned by the oil sheiks and board rooms of big corporations. All this is confronted with the poverty of the people working at the oil fileds, whose desperation leads to religious extremism and terrorism. Their tragic situation is unlikely to change, though because of the short-term policies implemente by their rulers.

Syriana plants a seed of uneasiness and curiosity in our minds and unlike most contemporary films it does not give simple answers to the problems that the world is facing today. Instead, it tries to present global economy with the highest possible accuracy and let us decide for ourselves, what we think. It's a cinematographic challenge, which is worth taking.

Review by Jan Naszewski
Written for EUFS Programme Autumn 2006