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Director’s Profile

Iraqi writer-director Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents 2018 and London Film School, where he received an MA with distinction for Children of God (2013), a multi-award-winning short set in the same Baghdad community as his debut feature, Hanging Gardens. In 2015, Ahmed began work on a feature documentary, The Servant of Baghdad, which received development support through Greenhouse Film Centre. UK-based Stray (Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji, Jessica Kelly, 2017) premiered in London at the East End Film Festival 2017 and went on to have a successful festival run. Hanging Gardens was selected for Rawi Screenwriters’ Lab and Med Film Factory in 2017, and was short-listed for a development award at El Gouna Film Festival 2018 and at Malmo Arab Film Festival Market Forum 2020.

Synopsis

Six days a week, Taha (27) and As’ad (10) rise with the first call to prayer and head for Hanging Gardens – a multi-colored mash-up of an environmental disaster. While Taha searches for scrap metal to sell by weight, As’ad chases after the US Embassy trucks, with their higher grade of trash. Then one day, As’ad uncovers a one-legged American sex doll, takes her home, washes and clothes her.
When As’ad presents the talking doll to his brother as a thing of beauty, Taha assaults his little brother with a violence that shocks them both. As’ad takes his ‘taboo trash back where he found it’ and creates a home for them inside an abandoned armored personnel carrier (APC).
It’s not so easy to disappear in a world where individual choices are the whole community’s business. A young entrepreneur immediately spots the doll’s potential and convinces As’ad it’s his duty to offer this virus-free entertainment to local boys. It’s not long before the local patriarch gets wind of this unwelcome addition to his closely patrolled community. Caught between his peers’ exploitation and the patriarch’s fundamentalism, As’ad takes the doll out of circulation and begins to humanize her. He names her Salwah, which translates as both ‘comfort’ and ‘salvation’.
As’ad’s refusal to live by other people’s rules further enrages the community. Juma’a gives his blessing for Amir’s boys to torch the APC. As’ad escapes and buries his treasure with the epitaph, ‘Here lies As’ad’s Salwah; abused by many, loved by one.’

Achievements

2022 Venice International Film Festival - Orizzonti Extra
2022 Busan International Film Festival
2022 Singapore International Film Festival
2022 Red Sea International Film Festival - Golden Yusr Best Feature Film, Best Cinematic Achievement
2023 Seattle International Film Festival - Special Jury Prize
2023 Asia Pacific Screen Awards - In Competition
2024 Academy Awards - Best International Film Iraq Nomination

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