Arab Film Festival

Love and Loss: Stories from Iraq

Expired November 29, 2021 7:45 AM
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Through a mix of narrative, documentary and experimental shorts produced all around the world, we present seven stories chronicling the struggles faced by Iraqis over the past 50 years. From the Iraq-Iran War to Desert Storm to ISIS and the persecution of the Yazidi people, these films offer us windows into a world that many of us don't see.


This program includes the following films:


In the Shadow of Paradise (United States) dir. Sahar al-Sawaf & Thomas Helman

Mother is Back (Iraq) dir. Rami Al-Shatri

The Black Veil (Qatar) dir. A.J. Al-Thani

Aziz (United States) dir. Ramiel Petros

Grace (Australia) dir. Brian Patto

Safia (Iraq) dir. Ahmed Abd

Ido (Iraq) dir. Saman Mustefa


Kidnapped from her village in North Iraq by ISIS, just a few months after marrying Mohammed, a 25- year-old Yazidi woman named Ellan is released from captivity and returns home with a newborn child from the ISIS father.


Ellan’s family and friends are waiting outside, beating drums and playing music celebrating her and other women safe return, but her husband cannot accept the ISIS child who is a shame to the family. He orders her to kill him before people find out.


In her room, with her baby in her arms, Ellan is pushed to take life of her own child. She makes several attempts but the mother in her, the instincts and feelings that she cannot betray, destine her to find a different way out from the plight that was awaiting her.


About the filmmaker:


Rami is an Iraqi film director, writer, art director and cinematographer. He started his way in arts and filmmaking taking several workshops in journalism, performing arts, producing, writing, film editing, photography and film directing. He then studied film at the Institute of Fine Arts, University of Baghdad. In 2015, he joined Iraqi Independent Film Center, and since then, he has worked as an art director, cinematographer, assistant director and writer on 5 feature-length and more than 20 short films, documentary and narrative. Many of these films were presented and received awards at the prestigious international film festivals in Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Berlin, Malmo, Busan, Cairo, and others. In 2016, Rami wrote and directed his first short fiction film The Camp Queen.

  • Year
    2021
  • Runtime
    8 minutes
  • Language
    Arabic
  • Country
    Iraq
  • Premiere
    West Coast
  • Director
    Rami Al Shattri
  • Screenwriter
    Rami Al Shattri
  • Producer
    Maytham Jbara
  • Cast
    Saja al Bayati, Mohammed Al-Badrawi,
  • Cinematographer
    Ali Hassan
  • Editor
    Yasir Saad, Andrew Gromey
  • Composer
    Jessica Hana and Gulseven Medar
  • Sound Design
    Thomas Neuspiel
  • Music
    Nova Emad