When As’ad, a 12-year-old rubbish picker, adopts an American sex doll from the Baghdad dumps, he crosses into a perilous red zone, finding himself caught in the crossfire between abusive forces of commercialism and fundamentalism in a world where defenders of humanism have lost their power. He embraces the courage it takes to not just survive, but live.

About the Filmmaker

Ahmed Al-Daradji was born in 1986 in Baghdad, Iraq. He was involved as a sound recordist on the feature film Ahlaam made after the American invasion of Iraq in 2004. After graduating with a Bachelors in Audio & Visual from the University of Baghdad, he then worked as a director of photography, writer and director for satellite stations and companies based in Baghdad.

Ahmed was involved as a script writer, editor & sound recordist on the short film My Name is Mohammed then worked as production assistant & sound recordist in a second feature film Son of Babylon.

He moved to London to study the MA filmmaking at London Film School. Whilst in London he shot his third short film Between the Two Banks. Recently he worked as part of the Iraq 35mm short film workshop, writing and directing the short film Children of God.