Iraq

An Iraqi-British director and screenwriter born in Baghdad in 1986. He studied at the College of Fine Arts at the University of Baghdad and graduated from the Berlinale Talents programme in 2018. His short film My Name Is Mohammed (2010) earned him a place at the London Film School, where he received an MA with distinction for his short Children of God (2013), a work that won multiple awards in Arab and international festivals in 2015. His first feature film Hanging Gardens (2022) received development support from the Royal Film Commission – Jordan and AFAC, and premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2022. It went on to win awards at the Venice Biennale, the El Gouna Film Festival, and the Red Sea Film Festival.