Feature Narrative Film
TOTAL BUDGET
US $350,000
CONFIRMED FINANCING
US $60,000
CONTACT
glo.mar.eli@gmail.com
+44 207 923 4311
When 12-year-old As’ad adopts an American sex doll, he crosses into a red zone where he finds himself caught in the crossfire among the defenders of humanism, commercialism and fundamentalism in his working-class Baghdad neighborhood.
As’ad (12) and adoptive brother Taha (28) scrape a living transforming trash from Baghdad’s dumps into treasure. While Taha focuses on scrap to sell by weight, As’ad chases U.S. Embassy trucks with their rich – taboo – pickings.
As’ad rescues an American sex doll from certain destruction, takes her home, washes and clothes her; and then presents her to Taha as a thing of beauty. Taha assaults him for defiling the moral code, and As’ad takes the doll to live with him in an abandoned military tank in Hanging Gardens.
When Amir (20) discovers As’ad’s “American girl,” the entrepreneur spots her potential and tempts As’ad into business by promoting him as his partner. Reluctant to expose his treasure to inexperienced groping from local boys, As’ad imposes a strict protocol.
As business rockets, Amir becomes reckless with greed and As’ad realises he’s being used. As’ad takes the doll back to the tank but it’s too late. Even Taha wakes up to the tribal patriarch’s plan to scapegoat As’ad. Taha tries to bring As’ad back into line but his “little brother” must find his own way through Iraq’s toxic mix of God, love, war and madness.
The patriarch gives his blessing for Amir to settle their score by torching As’ad’s tank. The burnt hulk becomes the patriarch’s monument to the consequences of eating from the forbidden fruits of Hanging Gardens.
As’ad buries his treasure in Baghdad’s children’s cemetery with the inscription, “here lies As’ad’s Salwah (meaning comfort); abused by many, loved by one.”
My story dates from the aftermath of the American occupation. While radical militias competed to control our lives, I was studying medicine at Baghdad University. One day a classmate invited me into the toilets and presented me with a sex doll on loan from a relative working for the U.S. forces. None of us had ever seen anything like her. She passed from embrace to embrace, offering male students the only release for instincts suppressed by social and religious norms at a time when love was equal to death.
The transition for Iraqi society post-2003 is completely surreal – perfect raw material for cinematic adaptation. As I prepare to shoot Hanging Gardens, I’m inspired by Emir Kusturica, Bahman Gobadi and Barry Jenkins. My film’s rhythm and pace will take their cue from As’ad, the way he moves, the music he loves. The camera will focus on what matters to As’ad. Viewers will see the world through his curious gaze as it takes in the darkness to find beauty in the midst of desolation. As with my short films, I’ll work with people who are living the events of my film. They are the experts in the film’s conflicts, themes and action and my creative partners alongside the HoDs. My goal is to portray their story with intimacy, integrity and vitality so that audiences will connect emotionally. My hope is that audiences will also understand continuing foreign military interventions across the Middle East from a human and compassionate perspective.
This project’s valuable assets are its vitality, integrity and authenticity. While rooted in a specific landscape, the action is motivated by basic human drives and the dream of freedom. My goal is to deliver a film whose currency will connect with Middle Easterners and whose universality will resonate for international audiences. To achieve this we need to engage key players in the Arab industry and then target European partners to access regional funds for post-production. The project’s strength owes much to professional input received during 2017 Rawi Screenwriters’ Lab and Med Film Factory’s Directors’ Lab, and from recent feedback from my own network who’ve had success with local material in the international market. My journey with Ahmed began at London Film School, where I oversaw development through delivery of graduation films (200813-).
Our three-week reconnaissance of Baghdad locations, facilities and crew in March of this year cemented our partnership and gave me the insight and courage necessary to deliver a revised screenplay that tells the story Ahmed wants to tell within realistic parameters for a first feature. Revision focused as much attention on the reality of shooting this film as on key story and on-screen elements that will engage audiences who know nothing of the film’s storyworld and characters. I’m confident that with Duraid Munajim as our cinematographer and a European editor on board from pre-production, we can deliver value on screen from a five-week shoot on location in Baghdad.
2017: The Invisible Word
2017: Undocument
2016: BitterSuite
2016: The Book of Gabrielle
2016: The Treasure Seekers
2013: Blackbird
1996: Faith