From NYTimes:

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 28 – In what was perhaps as much an act of defiance as a leisurely way of spending an afternoon, more than 300 Iraqis walked into a theater this past Saturday, and without metal detectors or security guards, sat down and watched a movie.
It was the start of Baghdad’s first film festival since the American-led invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein, a six-day event that by Wednesday evening had produced hundreds of happy Iraqis and not a single casualty. While the violence ground on in other parts of the capital, spectators of all ages packed into the theater to watch locally made short films that ranged from a documentary about sheep farmers to a feature that had eight actors, crying and laughing, entering a telephone booth one by one.
“We’re trying to send a message to people outside Iraq that this is a real country, not just a hole for terrorists,” said the festival’s organizer, Nizar al-Rawi, a graphic designer who is president of the Contemporary Visual Arts Society here…