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, Servant of Baghdad, which received development support through the Greenhouse Film Centre. UK-based ‘Stray’ (2016) premiered at London’s East End Film Festival 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.Read More

Synopsis

When As’ad, a 12-year-old rubbish picker, adopts an American sex doll from the Baghdad dumps, he crosses into a perilous red zone, finding himself caught in the crossfire between abusive forces of commercialism and fundamentalism in a world where defenders of humanism have lost their power. He embraces the courage it takes to not just survive, but live.Read More

Highlights

Venice International Film Festival, Italy

Red Sea International Film Festival, Saudi Arabia

Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Australia