Discoveries from Iraq World Cinema

Reving and his friend Nechir, who lives in a conservative part of Kurdistan, pursue their usual fun, which is considered normal adolescent fun in other parts of the world, but a taboo in their society.

The story of Yazidi women in a wake of a heavy war, after a terrible trauma. They are ready to return to their imperfect life, but their children from ISIS terrorists have become their most controversial obstacle in joining their families.

The diary of an electricity meter reader who constantly suffers from being chased by dogs. He falls in love with a mute girl, while the playful neighbor woman tries to catch his attention, causing jealousy in the mute girl. This leads to amusing incidents that captivate the entire neighborhood.

As you go to bed to rest from the fatigue of the day, you find yourself unable to sleep, overwhelmed by excessive thoughts, drifting back through the memories of your life—until you finally reach a path with no escape.

2076: a pen that changed history is a surrealistic short film about the beginning and future of humanity, depicting the beauty of life and death characters show their differences in ideologies and prospective of the world that creates conflict that takes place throughout the duration of the film

Despite the evidence, a woman refuses to accept her child's death in the midst of a war. She insists on using a mobile phone, a device she doesn't know how to use, to contact him.

A boy from Kurdistan living in France comes back to visit his childhood village, there to meet a girl studying the French language at the University of Salahadin, the cultural conflict, a young innocent romance, leads to loads of problems.

A Kurdish-Swedish soccer team’s journey to become champions and a symbol of resilience for the Kurdish people.

The film depicts the biography of King Ghazi, one of the kings of Iraq in the 1930s, who sought to break free from the bonds of British colonization and adopt a nationalist path. This led various parties to attempt his assassination, including the servant Sa'id, who is also disposed of after the assassination. The film also portrays aspects of life in Iraq during the 1930s.

THE FILM "DOZ", TOLD IN THE BACKDROP OF BEAUTIFUL KURDISH LANDSCAPE, IS ABOUT SIRMEN, THE DAUGHTER OF A RICH MAN, WHO REFUSES TO MARRY THE MAN HER FATHER HAS PICKED OUT FOR HER. SIRMEN LEAVES HER PARENTS' HOUSE TO SEEK AID FROM THE YEZIDI PRINCE.

Dema jin hes bike (When a woman loves) by Jînda Baran is one of the early examples of Kurdish guerilla cinema.

In December 2021, a female victim's body was discovered and disposed of in a public street in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. Her name was Dekan. Dekan’s corpse was never claimed by family or friends and remained in the morgue for several months. Dekan’s fate like many other female victims ended in the unmarked section of the graveyard, which is often designated for female victims of "honor killings."

It was a normal night for Hiwa as he was on a call with Blnd, a dear friend of his, but as Hiwa gets off the call to go watch a late night horror movie, he gets an unexpected visit from a familiar face, and strange events occur throughout the night to both friends. will they survive till dawn?

This footage is part of an old archive taken by the filmmaker’s father Abbas Abdulrazaq, a former Kurdish fighter and cameraman. In 1985 he accompanied a group of Peshmarga to document their activity during a mission to attack one of the army’s camps in the north of Iraq. They took the Sirwan river by a small raft to cross the area which was controlled by the Iraqi army. Despite all the risks they have taken, the battle didn’t happen. Consequently, my father filmed them when they were singing a song.

A documentary directed by Halgurd Salih tells the mysterious story of Mr. Hama Tal, a veteran Peshmerga.

The film is about layers of wealthy bourgeois society and political classes that have turned people's lives into a game that has made people suffer.

Young Viyan, is forcibly given to wealthy elder businessman, Haji Hemmo. When she runs out of the bedroom and climbs a tree, refusing to sleep with him, the respected elder looses face and becomes the laughing-stock of the town. In return, he punishes her by beating her and locking her up in the bedroom. The more the townsfolk mock him the harder he beats her. Meanwhile, a traveling young artist, Botan tries to reach out to her. This leads to Haji Hemmo's resolve to set her on fire.

It's Lava's 20th birthday. She spends her day drifting between classrooms, cafés, her car, and crowded living rooms as friends and family prepare celebration after celebration in her honor.

Al-Hub Wal-Saif (Love and the Sword) is a classic Iraqi film produced in 1996. The story all about Mu’ayyad murder,and Aida tries to find out the identity of the killer and take revenge, but she discovers that everyone around her knows the truth but cannot speak out for fear of their lives from the kille

A Bedouin love story set in the desert near Najaf.

The movie overview is unavailable.

Revealing the truth about women and the culture of the Middle East

The screams of the looming night tremble. Having found no voice to escape.

A Yazidi refugee camp in Iraqi Kurdistan is home tomore than 20,000 refugees, many of whom are victims of terrorist attacks by ISIS. Shilan is a young Kurdish nurse who volunteered to take care of them. Every tent in the camp has a story, and Shilan takes the responsibility of hearing the refugees out, empathising with the pain they are suffering. One day Shilan hears about a tent where a woman is refusing to eat her food or have any sort of contact with the outside. She decides to take action.

The narrative Ali Hussein, takes us on an environmental journey through Nasiriyah, revealing the tragedies and struggles faced by people, animals, and plants.

Hajar is a trace story of a woman of Anfal, who sacrificed 30 years of her life waiting and building hope from the torn-up pieces of her children’s clothing, she didn’t let the home that her children had built to play at go to waste.

In a part of middle east in eastern and northern Kurdistan live a group of people who have their own religion, perform their prayers and worship god with the use of the Tanbur. The Tanbur is an old musical instrument that has its own special ritual of crafting. Yar is a documentary about the process of crafting the Tanbur and how it is used for religious ritual of the Yarsans.

Syrian Kurdish actor Bavê Tayar is defined by his patriarchal honor, which is destroyed when his only son, Tayaro, disappears and two of his sixteen daughters join the YPJ. In response, he sells all his possessions and impulsively abandons his family to begin a journey to Europe to find his son. This film is the story of his travels and the profound personal change Bavê Tayar undergoes.

The story revolves around Iraqi army men who, following a historic struggle with the occupying forces, were buried alive in their shelters in the Hafar al-Batin border area by huge bulldozers. Filming began in the spring of 2000, with the city of Habbaniyah selected as the primary shooting location. The film is considered the first Iraqi feature to address the Second Gulf War and involved Iraqi actors alongside Iraqi military units. Approximately 50 actors and 200 military personnel participated in the production. It is believed that the film’s original title was The Longest Day in History before settling on its final name. The film was not permitted to be screened, similar to another Iraqi film, The Countdown. It was reportedly banned because it did not meet the approval of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The human brain is very powerful.

Fragmented views of deserts and Baghdad interiors evoke a society shaped by war, repression and resilience, linking cosmic beliefs with history and memory.

Wadi Al-Salam in Najaf, Iraq, is the world's largest cemetery, with over 5 million graves. Its hereditary undertakers share their stories.

The film reflects the suffering of a rural woman with a strong personality. Everyone in the village tries to marry her for the sake of the acres she owns

After years of marriage, a woman longs for the affection of her husband, who remains unaware of the distance growing between them. As she yearns for the intimacy they once shared, she must navigate their cultural norms and societal expectations to express her desire for a deeper connection.

A short for all those who worship life and have a poetic soul

A man who decides to take his family, consisting of his wife and daughter, to the cinema. This deprived the people sitting behind him from watching the movie, as he reserved the screen for himself, leading to various problems.

The teacher, a girl from a city becomes a teacher in a village, she is in love with Shero who is a guy from the village, and she has to choose one between Shero, the Son of the chief of the village, and humanity.

an Iraqi film about dance and murder.

Cineholic follows a group of friends from Kirkuk and their love affairs with film since they were young. The story traverses their memories related to this passion, while also alluding to the difficulties of living in Iraq at the ongoing backdrop of dictatorship, war, instability and insecurity. The film also traces the catastrophes of neoliberalism, imported by USA to Iraq under the guise of progress. There was a collective cinema auditorium in the 1980s, which has turned into a garage for imported cars–a sign of neoliberalism and a free-market economy.

After the black crows attack his land, a rich landowner gathers the village children and turns them into Scarecrows

(Badi’a) is a woman who disagrees with her husband (Fawzi) because there is another woman in his life. She is a fifty-year-old woman who approaches life with some caution and vigilance. She works in excavations for antiquities, but it seems that digging in search of treasures is not matched by a similar success in digging in the depths of her husband. .

A poet runs away from his society, can no longer live in it, goes to a distant place and lives alone, suddenly there he sees death.

Cry of the Sky is loosely about events that led to the collapse of the first Kurdish revolution of 1961 and the chaotic recovery of the resistance movement during the second half of the 1970s. The storyline takes its point of departure from the current situation in the Kurdistan region with the ongoing war between the Peshmerga and a new foe, the Islamic State (ISIS/Daesh).

In a Baghdad that’s finding its footing again, 19-year-old Yas transforms its cracked asphalt into his skateboard runway, gliding beyond childhood shadows and carving out his horizon.

From the deep south to the extreme north, a trip through Iraq where the amazing diversity of Iraqi society is unveiled. Haunting chants are interwoven with the voices of the people, lending a poetic resonance to the issue.

Hêza had never in her wildest dream thought that one day she would be commanding hundreds of men and women fighters in a battle against the worlds most dangerous jihadist terror organisation (ISIS) and defeat them. This documentary is about a Yazidi woman who had been enslaved during the attack of the Islamic State (ISIS) on Shengal (Sinjar) which started on 3 August 2014. It tells what she’d lived through in the hands of ISIS, how she managed to escape, and how she carried on with her life after her escape.

The film depicts life in Iraq during the Iraq-Iran war through the characters of the fighters Jabbar and Imad (played by Jalal Kamel and Nizar Al-Samarrai). They live in the city of Basra and the Iraqi countryside amidst the war atmosphere. Jalal develops a love relationship with the beautiful girl Soha, and they both join their military duties.

A social drama interspersed with numerous songs and dances, revolving around a young man who falls in love with a girl. In each situation, a song vividly portrays the emotions of that moment.

A former Iraqi army commander under Saddam Hussein, responsible for the mass murder of Kurds, is looking for witnesses who want to testify that he actually saved lives.

An old man is collecting the bodies of the dead in the fighting between the local parties and believes that everyone is the same and fighting for the same purpose.

A young Kurdish mujahid, regrets his decision to join the jihadist movement. He is torn between his father's expectations and the mujahideen leader and ends up a victim of his own internal turmoil.

Projected on the wall by the gallery exit was Big Rock Candy Mountain, 2015, a four-minute video animation of one thousand stills taken from footage of ISIS militants toppling statues and wrecking artifacts in Syria and Iraq. The stills have been painted, drawn over, or collaged so that the felled works become reanimated: An Assyrian statue housed at Mosul’s central museum morphs into a cross-hatched breaching mermaid; another gains a polka-dot skin; yet another crashes to the ground enveloped in writhing pink roses. These whimsically patterned phoenixes, emerging from the ruins of sacred artifacts, provide a determinedly dreamy rejoinder to unimaginably destructive acts of censorship and constitute a celebration in their own right.

'Journey' follows the story of a disparate group of people fleeing their homelands in search of a better life. Drawn from Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, they travel overland, by air and by sea with the dream of reaching Australia.

a worker in a factory in Sulaimaniyeh (Kurdistan region in Iraq)has been chosen for a mission and we are witnessing of him while doing his duty. But Is the worker just a worker and Is the camera just a camera?

A joint Iraqi–Lebanese film built on comedic contrasts, centered on two carefree young men who wreak havoc in the city. When they unexpectedly encounter love, their lives begin to improve and they set themselves on a better path.