Iraq, Saudi Arabia, USA, Arabic - 90 min
Hussein al-Asadi - hussein.adventure@gmail.com
Huda al-Kadhimi - huda.kadhimi@gmail.com
Huma Gupta - humagupta@gmail.com
Fatima, a nomadic woman, fights to keep her beloved buffaloes alive in Iraq’s dying marshes. She refuses to leave and abandon her independent way of life, but at what cost?
It was perhaps the challenge of storytelling through and with Fatima’s story that inspired me to make my first feature length documentary. However, making this film required that I too had to learn to see the world and what is of value from a different point of view. Spending long stretches of time in the vast expanse of the marshes over the past few years greatly shifted my creative approach. I had to learn how to sit still with and create space for Fatima’s inner world, emotional life, and relationships to unfold before the camera. In doing so, I had to transform what was previously just a nominal kinship relationship joining me to her by a shared tribe and actually become her kin. Sitting in stillness with her slowly translated to how I began to change the camerawork, oftentimes embracing the use of slow motion where Fatima takes moments to be with herself and reflect what she feels through her poetry. I also realized that the artistic approach of the film would have to strike a balance between narrative fiction and documentary styles. For example, my team and I spent so much time with her in her home over the years that we became familiar with the rhythms of her life, her neighbors, the children who live nearby, the personalities of the various buffaloes, and the successes and sorrows that are experienced each day.
In our film, the journey of development and research lasted more than three years in various cities in the marshlands - southern Iraq. Now we are in an advanced stage of production / rough cut. We started shooting in September 2021 regarding scenes of drought and climate change. We scheduled the film to be finished by November 2024. The film's team consists of the director of photography, Mohanad Hasan Al-Sudani, with whom we are cooperating with him for the third time in filming our documentaries. The sound recordist is Hassan Al-Eidani, and the editor, Noura Nefzi. The film was produced by the Ishtar Iraq Film Production Company in its Iraqi and Jordanian branches. The project received a production grant from the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture - AFAC, Culture Resources, and Red Sea Film Fund, IDFA Bertha Fund. Our production partner is Huma Gupta who plays the role of an influential producer on the project, who will lead the impact campaign to save the marshes and draw stakeholders and organizations working in the field of environment and climate change. By her hard work and the experience of her teaching, she will be the appropriate choice for this campaign in the production, post-production and distribution stages. She is the principal investigator of the MIT Climate Futures, Cities Past Lab.
Huda Al-Kadhimi is the founder of Ishtar Iraq Film Production, which specializes in international co-productions and filming in Iraq and Jordan. Her films include "Mosul 980" (Berlinale) and most recently "Hanging Gardens" (Venice), Was the first Iraq film at Orizzonti Extra 2022. Huda began her career in filmmaking through the Jordan Royal Film Commission and Iraqi Independent Film Center - Baghdad workshops from 2006-2017. Later, Huda built her physical production experience working as an Assistant Director and Line Producer on features such as "The Journey" (Amazon Prime) by Mohamed Al-Daradji, and "Haifa Street" (Netflix) by Mohanad Hayal and "Our River.. Our Sky" by Maysoon Pachachi (Netflix).