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Mohamed al- Daradji, Son of Babylon

The fiction film Son of Babylon (2010), directed by Iraqi-Dutch filmmaker Mohamed al-Daradji, is set two weeks after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Ahmed, a young Kurdish boy, accompanies his grandmother in her search for his father who had disappeared during the First Gulf War. The film follows the pair as they journey across the recently war-torn country from the northern mountains of Kurdish Iraq down to the southern deserts of what was once Babylon. Al-Daradji constructs an intimate portrait of Iraqi individuals whose lives were transformed by Saddam’s regime and the aftermath of the 2003 U.S. invasion.

As Kurdish Iraqis, Ahmed and his grandmother share a cultural heritage colored by grief, repression, and trauma due to the brutal extermination of Kurdish people throughout Saddam’s regime. However, the generational gap between Al-Daradji’s protagonists adds further nuance to the film’s interrogation of identity as Ahmed is too young to have experienced, and thus too young to fully understand, the context of his father’s disappearance and the depth of his grandmother’s pain. Furthermore, Ahmed is bilingual, speaking both Kurdish and Arabic, in contrast to his grandmother who struggles to communicate in Arabic. This detail represents the youth of Iraq and the country’s hopeful future in the hands of new generations.

Despite the generational rift between the lead characters, Ahmed is still shown to carry the unconscious weight of his grandmother’s sorrow alongside his own experiences with the violence fostered by the U.S. occupation. As the pair travels across Iraq, they encounter people representing the country’s diverse population of Sunni and Shia Muslims and Kurdish and Arab Iraqis. Ahmed and his grandmother often share experiences of grief and loss with new acquaintances, many of whom have also lost loved ones to the mass graves of Saddam’s regime or to the bombings from U.S. forces. Al-Daradji captures the nuanced intersections of identity in Iraq following the dissolution of Saddam’s regime while emphasizing how the collective experience of grief can serve as a foundation for cross-cultural empathy and reconciliation in Iraq. – Ali Almatrood, Skyler Fong, and Muayad Al-Barwani (“Arab Cultures through Film” course, Summer 2024)

Muhsin Al Ramli, The President’s Gardens 

Following three friends named Abdullah, Ibrahim, and Tariq, Muhsin al-Ramli’s novel The President’s Gardens (2012) depicts their life in Iraq over the rule of Saddam Hussein to the American invasion.

The three of them grew up in a small village in Iraq and experience political violence through their various involvements in society. While they are childhood best friends, they grow up to take up different positions — Abdullah is a farmer, Ibrahim a veteran, and Tariq is a religious authority involved with the government. Starting with its first sentence, the book contains many graphic descriptions of violence; this lets you imagine the horrors of wars and Saddam Hussein’s reign.- Ruofei Shang ’25

Ahmed Saadaawi, Frankenstein in Baghdad

Set in the aftermath of the US occupation of Iraq, Ahmed Saadawi’s 2013 novel Frankenstein in Baghdad explores Iraqi national consciousness and anxieties during the American invasion.

The novel centers around the Whatsitsname, an amalgamation of body parts stitched together by Hadi, a junk dealer and pathological liar. In an attempt to showcase the toll of the occupation in Iraq, Hadi creates this multi-ethnic, multi-cultural model of loss—the “first true Iraqi citizen” (147)—from those killed in Baghdad suicide car bombings. When the spirit of a security guard slain in a bombing himself accidentally enters this Frakensteined body, he finds himself driven to avenge the deaths of those he is made up of.

Mahmoud, a young journalist investigating the murders, becomes wrapped up in a national conspiracy as he’s introduced to a mysterious government office employing fortune tellers and astrologers to predict crimes. As he investigates the history and motives of the Whatsitsname, Mahmoud struggles to reconcile his burgeoning proximity to power with his commitment to justice. With American soldiers occupying the city and unsettling the community, strained sectarian divides, and the sensationalized story of the Whatsitsname, Baghdad itself becomes a time bomb of tension.

This novel discusses notions of justice, journalistic integrity, and the tension between leaving and remaining in a country on the precipice of civil war. Frankenstein in Baghdad attempts to explore the many ways in which one can grieve; a person, a country, a principle. Saadawi focuses on tragedies that persist in Iraq—car bombings, sectarianism, political instability—through a mystical, grotesque caricature of justice, its promises, and its failures. Saadawi’s tone is self-aware and ironic, blending visceral descriptions of body horror and sensational violence with surrealist humor. -Sarah McArdle

Hassan Blasim, The Corpse Exhibition

Hassan Blasim’s The Corpse Exhibition, originally published in 2014, is a collection of short fiction stories from an Iraqi perspective.

It gathers stories originally published in his earlier collections The Madman of Freedom Square and The Iraqi Christ. Blasim writes gory short fictional stories, drawing parallels to the reality of the Iraq war. He uses mystical and gothic fictional elements through his beautiful writing and storytelling to truly transform these short stories, highlighting the terrors of the Iraq war. Blasim’s capabilities to teleport the reader into each story’s world, through his creative and cohesive writing style, makes The Corpse Exhibition a delightful read, despite its heavy contents. -Noora Lahoud ’25

Abbas Fahdel, Homeland: Iraq Year Zero

Directed by Abbas Fahdel and released in 2015, the documentary film Homeland: Iraq Year Zero is divided into two parts, “Before the Fall” and “After the Battle,” which respectively provide an intimate look into Iraqi life before and after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

In a riveting cross between film and documentary, Fahdel chronicles the lives of his extended family members and friends as they navigate daily routines and reckon with the impending threat of U.S. imperialism. In Part 1: Before the Fall, Fahdel offers an intimate portrait of middle-class Iraq under the rule of Saddam Hussein by assembling extended domestic scenes and encounters among Baghdad friends and neighbors. Drawing from his documentation of personal stories and daily routines, Fahdel reveals a contrast between the propaganda of Saddam’s regime and the actual life of its citizens. Fahdel’s emotional and humanistic focus remains a centerpiece in the film as Part 2: After the Battle documents the ruthless destruction of U.S. occupying forces and the volatile anger, grief, and shock that gripped the Iraqi people following the invasion. 

The dual perspectives provided by viewing both parts of Homeland: Iraq Year Zero are particularly powerful as they challenge dominant Western perceptions of life under Saddam Hussein’s regime and demonstrate the devastating nature of U.S. imperialism in Iraq. One of the most striking aspects of the film is its unusual observational style. During the film, Fahdel uses a cinematic style that is similar to vlogging, in which the events unfold naturally without interference. This method allows the audience to feel like they are present, experiencing the lives of the people on screen. Fahdel’s decision to film in this way helps create a bond between the viewers and the Iraqi people on screen by making their stories feel closer and more relatable. – Ali Almatrood, Skyler Fong, and Muayad Al-Barwani (“Arab Cultures through Film” course, Summer 2024)

Dunya Mikhail, The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq

Dunya Mikhail, a highly acclaimed Iraqi poet and journalist, wrote The Beekeeper which tells the experiences of Yazidi and Christian women during their captivity by ISIS in Iraq in 2014.

Originally published in 2017, The Beekeeper reveals the horrific realities that women in Iraq experienced in their day-to-day lives under ISIS rule. Covering difficult topics such as sexual assault, abuse, murder, and suicide, Mikhail shares the extensive interviews she conducted during her time in contact with ‘The Beekeeper.’ That title refers to Abdullah, an Iraqi man who was once a beekeeper but began to devote his time, effort, and money to rescuing women in captivity after ISIS came to power in Iraq. Through Mikhail’s phone calls with Abdullah, she learns about the horrific experiences endured by these captives. Each chapter allows us to enter the gruesome life of a new Iraqi woman in her quest for freedom, leaving the reader weeping throughout the entire book. -Noora Lahoud ’25

Bahman Ghobadi, Turtles Can Fly

Bahman Ghobadi’s 2004 film Turtles Can Fly follows a group of Kurdish children living as refugees on the Iraq-Turkish border, trying to survive.

Satellite, one of these Iraqi-Kurdish children, acts as a conduit for the elders in their area, helping them decipher the news channel they worked so hard to jumpstart. One integral aspect to the story is that it takes place amid the United States’s invasion of Iraq. The elder’s urgency in being able to receive and decipher the news, the barbed wire, and a whole litany of other details make clear that this film is a war film. It does not tell the story of people who had the opportunity to consider what is going on within a wider argument and compartmentalize it. The film portrays the unfettered reality of war, the lives of refugees, and those attempting to survive dark times that have befallen them. -Blake Martinez