Soon after the fall of Baghdad in 2003, a young and charismatic film student, Muthana Mohmed, stands in the rubble of the city's film school and explains to an American television audience that his dream of becoming a filmmaker has been destroyed - first by Saddam Hussein, then by American bombs. This brief, fortuitous appearance on MTV changes Muthana's life forever. Watching in the United States, actor/director Liev Schreiber stops channel surfing, utterly captivated. Feeling guilty about a war he opposed, Schreiber decides to extend to the unknown Iraqi the opportunity of a lifetime - to come to Prague to work on an American movie, Everything Is Illuminated. On set, frustrated expectations complicate the relationship between Muthana and his American benefactors in what becomes a cross-cultural endeavor gone awry. Filmmaker Nina Davenport becomes increasingly entangled in the young Iraqi's life as his visa is about to expire and the threat of returning to Baghdad looms...

דוקומנטרי העוסק בדרכן הפתלתלה של כוונות טובות, דרך סיפורו של צעיר עיראקי, שהוזמן על ידי ליב שרייבר לעבוד על הסט של סרטו, הכל מואר. הסרט עוקב אחר קליטתו של הבחור וכל הבעייתיות העולה מציפיות המארחים ורצונותיו של האורח.

Liev Schreiber le da a un estudiante de cine iraquí la oportunidad que creía haber perdido para siempre y se prepara como cineasta.