Son of Babylon
2010/ 100 mins/ Dir. Mohamed al Daradji
Cast: Shazada Hussein, Yasser Talib
Northern Iraq, 2003. Two weeks after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Ahmed, a 12-year-old boy begrudgingly follows in the shadow of his grandmother. On hearing news that prisoners of war have been found alive in the South, she is determined to discover the fate of her missing son, Ahmed’s father, who never returned from the Gulf war. From the mountains of Kurdistan to the sands of Babylon, they hitch rides from strangers and cross paths with fellow pilgrims, on all too similar journeys. Struggling to understand his grandmother’s search, Ahmed follows in the forgotten footsteps of a father he never knew. This journey will lead the boy to come of age.
‘warm, human and quietly devastating‘ ‘A tough, tender, hugely moving work of mourning for all those Iraqi men and women who have disappeared since the Gulf War‘
Winner: Berlin International Film Festival – Amnesty International Film Prize & Peace Film Award
Nominated for Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival