14/09/2022 - VENICE 2022: Inspired by De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves, the Iraqi director takes a look at his “unbalanced” home country

(© La Biennale di Venezia/Foto ASAC/G Zucchiatti)

In Hanging Gardens [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji
film profile], a somewhat ironic nickname for Baghdad’s endless rubbish dump, two brothers barely make a living going through piles of trash. One day, As’ad discovers an American sex doll. He is mesmerised and soon comes up with a business plan, but he doesn’t appreciate the way the “clients” mistreat his precious find. We spoke to director Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji about his Venice Orizzonti Extra title.

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Cineuropa: The setting for your film feels post-apocalyptic at times. This world is so barren, like in Mad Max.
Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji: I think you’re the first one who’s mentioned it. I really wanted to bring this science-fiction element to the film, despite ourlack of money, and this place was already there. It’s an actual dump. Also, what Iraq has been through since the 1980s, it’s a real story as well. Life there is a gamble – nothing is stable. It’s its very own planet. Due to the sanctions imposed by other countries, we were so isolated for so long. We didn’t communicate with the rest of the world, didn’t have mobile phones. All these years of dictatorship, they play with your mind. That’s why things are unbalanced.

Here, they discover this different world through, well, its rubbish. There is no other interaction.
One day, I was waiting for a friend. He was late, and then he appeared with this sex toy in a big plastic bag. We were stunned. What was going on? He got it from his cousin, who works for the US Army. Boys started to use it – it became quite famous at the university. Until someone washed it with hot water and it shrank.

I have to tell you, though, one day I was watching [Bradley Cooper-starrer] American Sniper, and it really upset me as an Iraqi. They “sexualised” war, promoting killing. I went right back to writing Hanging Gardens as a result. I wanted to have an authentic film, to tell our own story.

The sexual part of the story is a bit disturbing. You have a child protagonist, but it gets really dark: he keeps telling the men not to put anything “sharp in her”. You imply these encounters are violent.
I have seven sisters, it’s a very patriarchal community, and this film talks about imbalance – about a society where women are forced to disappear. Men are violent, and as soon as women are out of the picture, it just gets worse. Also, we are so militarised as a nation. I have seen violence; my sisters have experienced it.

It’s a very metaphorical film, and this sex doll can represent so many things: the American influence, capitalism, all this sexuality that surrounds us now. We are not equipped to deal with it just yet. Or it could represent women’s lives in Iraq. It’s a transitional period, but if you ask me, it’s still a good country. We are free, for God’s sake!

The sweetness of your protagonist makes it easier to swallow sometimes. Why did you want him to be that young?
For me, he represents Iraq’s new generation, born during the invasion. He was found in the dump the same way they find another one later on, because it’s quite common there. We were so confused, with so many ideologies clashing in our heads. They are demanding new freedoms. If you look at Iraq, it’s really a country of teenagers. Theirs can be a generation of democracy.

He reminded me of Italian neorealism: another kid surviving among the destruction.
I am influenced by Italian films – De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves has been my favourite. I have a documentary background, so I really wanted to apply it here. We only used natural lighting, to tread this thin line between reality and fiction.

Are you already thinking about how this film will be received locally? A festival audience is a whole different beast.
I am just going for it. I am a radical filmmaker, you could say. We need to be shaken up because we like to keep things hidden instead. What you see here has happened – it’s just that nobody wants to talk about it. Me? I don’t really care. You have some vulgar language, which I guess I could change; you also have someone removing God’s name from a flag. You have this sex doll, too. I think the new generation will accept it; the radicals will be upset.

There are no borders for me any more. I’ve been kidnapped in the past, I have a bullet in my leg. The US Army arrested me for carrying a camera. After all this, I can’t say I’m not scared of anything else, but it has shown me that life is a miracle. It’s a shame to waste it by worrying.