Iraq in 35mm

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Arena Qatar The Creator

Iraq in 35 mm Home to one of the oldest civilizations and continually inhabited for close to 8,000 years, Iraq has learnt to rise from the ashes again and again. But this knowledge doesn’t necessarily soothe the pain of the living. Filmmaker Mohamed Al Daradji focuses his lens on the war-ravaged country and the untold stories echoing across its plains.

IF YOU WERE PRESENT that Thursday evening in the Museum of Islamic Art’s (MIA) auditorium, you would have seen much surreptitious tear-wiping against the flickering light of the screen. Somewhere among the sparsely populated seats, it’s difficult to pinpoint where, the sniffling that began almost half an hour into the movie didn’t abate until well after the credits stopped rolling, punctuating the anguished sounds of the wailing woman on screen. Director Mohamed Al Daradji, whose love of cinema began as a means of retreat into fantasy, denies his audience this very escapism. His intentions are the diametric opposite: to take his viewers down the dusty

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T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine

roads of rural Iraq, through the rubble of its cities and the rugged beauty of its ancient ruins, straight into the hearts of its long-suffering people teeming with weary, decadesold sadness that unpredictably aches and bleeds like a fresh wound. Son of Babylon was Al Daradji’s second feature film to be selected as Iraq’s official entry to the Oscars, a fact that is clearly indicative of his pivotal role in the “new Iraqi cinema movement”. “There was never a film industry to speak of in Iraq,” he says. His distinctive afro, which you would expect to bob around entertainingly, remains as calm and centered as its owner. “During the

IMAGES COURTESY OF MOHAMED AL DARADJI

BY AYSWARYA MURTHY


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