Hanging Gardens

Original title: Janain mualaqua
Genre: Drama
Director: Ahmed Al-Daradji
Country: Iraq, Egypt, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Palestine
Year of production: 2022
Czas: 117 min

Awards and nominations:
2022 Red Sea International Film Festival: Best Feature Film, Best Cinematic Contribution
2022 Venice Film Festival: Special Mention - Premio Fondazione FAI Persona Lavoro Ambiente
 
This intimate drama takes place at a Baghdad landfill site, ironically called Hanging Gardens. We accompany two brothers, orphaned because of the American invasion on Iraq: 12-year-old Asad (daringly played by debuting Hussain Muhammad Jalil) and his older brother and guardian Taha (Wissam Diyaa).
Asad spends the last days of his childhood surrounded by remnants of the bygone world, in heaps of rubbish and post-war scrap metal. He and his brother search for metal and plastic “treasures” that they can sell for profit. Dirt, in every sense of this word, is omnipresent. It’s emphasised by very suggestive cinematography by Duraid Munajim. You can find everything in the rubbish, from pornographic magazines left by American soldiers to bodies of new-born babies and female victims of restrictive patriarchal culture of Iraq. Taha tries to put their miserable existence in some order. However, his attempts fail when Asad finds a realistic sex doll and decides to take it home. And although Taha makes an ultimatum: it’s either the doll or home, Asad doesn’t care. He already knows how to monetise his find, which will make people controlling the community very angry. The doll, a symbol of what’s forbidden and denied, will create confusion, and wake up the worst instincts in local men.

Author: Ewa Pawlik

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Ahmed Yassin Aldaradji (Ahmed Al-Daradij) – a director and screenwriter born in Baghdad in 1986, up until now known for short films (“Between the Two Banks”, “Children of God”). He studied at Baghdad University and in London Film School. In his work he concentrates on the socio-cultural situation in Iraq after the war, and on tensions between social norms and personal freedom.