Four Iraqi Short Films
Amal’s Garden | Nadia Shihab | 2012 | 32min
Language: Turkmen and Arabic with English subtitles
Amal and Mustafa are an ethnic Turkmen couple who have shared a long life together in northern Iraq. When Amal decides to renovate their home after a decade of war, Mustafa retreats to the garden, where he encounters the curious gaze of his grandniece and her camera.
Nadia Shihab is an artist whose work draws on her interest in diasporic longing, relationships to place, and processes of improvisation. Her films have shown in film festivals and galleries internationally including the Centre Pompidou and the Arab American National Museum.
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Survivors of Firdos Square | Adel Khaled | 2011 | 28min
Language: Arabic with English subtitles
The film presents the story of two artists: Bassem, a sculptor and Adel, a director. It portrays their struggles in Baghdad as a result of the US occupation and their departure to Damascus, where they went separate ways. Bassem returns to Baghdad and dies in mysterious circumstances, while Adel arrives in Europe.
Born in 1981 in Baghdad, Iraq, Adel Khaled graduated from the Art Institute of Fine arts of Baghdad in 2004 and worked as a filmmaker. In 2008, he fled to Belgium where he is living since. He directed and co-directed several movies.
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Crazy Days | Adel Abidin | 2004 | 10min
Language: English without subtitles
An Iraqi immigrant man living in Finland, who is neither physically nor mentally integrated with the Finnish society, gets his attitude reinforced by constantly being approached as an outsider by Finns. The film shows a collection of impressions this Iraqi man has gathered while in Finland. Like an invisible spirit, he enters the house of a 30-year-old Finnish woman and sees her life through his thoughts. He walks in the streets and the forest. The film visualises his associations; he links Finnish rituals with Iraq. The film is saturated by loneliness and the experience of distance between people.
Adel Abidin was born in Baghdad in 1973 and currently resides between Helsinki and Amman. He received a BA in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad in 2000 and an MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Time and Space Art in Helsinki in 2005. He represented Finland at the Nordic Pavilion in the 52nd Venice Biennale and his work has been the subject of major exhibitions worldwide, such as the 56th Venice Biennale.
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Sabyea | Dhyaa Joda | 2017 | 17min
Language: Kurdish and Arabic with English subtitles
A Yazidi woman lives in the valley of a mountain, in northern Iraq, with her only daughter. Her husband left with other men to fight ISIS, while other families decided to flee for safety. Despite everyone’s entreaties, the heroine decided to stay put stubbornly, preferring to die with honour rather than live like a slave ('sabyea').
Dhyaa Joda was born in Baghdad where he studied cinema at the University of Fine Arts in 2005. He moved to live in Belgium and studied photography in Brussels. A documentary and short films filmmaker, he has also worked as an assistant director and cameraman.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with directors Adel Khaled and Dhyaa Joda.
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This screening is part of 'Iraqisms', a series of artistic and cultural events, organised by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung - Beirut Office in partnership with Dar El-Nimer for Arts and Culture and curated by Rasha Salah.
