12/09/2022 - VENICE 2022: A spectacular find among the rubble of post-war Baghdad causes disruption, unrest and hilarity in Ahmed Yassin Al-Daradji’s film

“The first Iraqi movie in the official selection of Venice,” reads the cover caption of the press book for the first feature by London Film School and Berlinale Talents alumnus Ahmed Yassin Al-Daradji. Returning to the post-war Baghdad setting of his acclaimed graduation short, Children of God, Hanging Gardens [+see also:
trailer
interview: Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji
film profile] has premiered in the Orizzonti section of the 79^th Venice International Film Festival.

Even in a comfy cinema seat, one almost instinctively flinches at the sight of the dusty rubble, the mouldy garbage and the clusters of buzzing insects at “Hanging Gardens”, a vast dump site on the outskirts of Baghdad that constitutes the place where 28-year-old Taha (Wissam Diyaa) and his kid brother As’ad (Hussain Muhammad Jalil) work. Orphaned by the war and close to the bottom of the human food chain, they regularly comb the area for saleable junk, mainly scrap metal and plastic for recycling, procured by junk dealer and local head honcho Haji. To As’ad, it’s clearly also an adventure, as he rummages around and especially seeks out US army-base waste.

“You’re bad luck,” warns Taha, still feeling the trauma and hatred of the events that killed their parents, but As’ad takes little heed. Assorted girlie magazines prove especially intriguing to the budding youngster, who also makes a little bit of cash on the side by selling the juiciest pictures, simultaneously infuriating Taha. “We are barely surviving the halal way, and you want to add this haram!” he bellows, while harbouring an inappropriate secret activity of his own: spying on a female neighbour while she, having shed her chador, hangs out laundry in her backyard. All of these disruptions, however, pale in comparison to what, or who, turns up next: a second-hand, state-of-the-art love doll, equipped with several interesting functions and wearing a star-spangled bikini. After the arrival of Salwah (“I can’t leave you a nameless jinn,” reasons As’ad, and picks a name meaning both comfort and salvation), things won’t be the same for quite a while.

Together with his teenage friend Amir, As’ad creates a lucrative brothel-on-wheels enterprise, with Amir’s motorised rickshaw serving as the business premises. Long and lecherous queues form, full of people eagerly anticipating a steamy encounter with the artificial blonde (the fresh memory of the Venice-screened Marilyn Monroe tale Blonde adds a curious connotation). Director Al-Daradji, an accomplished handler of faces and places, moves freely between the emotional landscapes, providing hilarity and melancholy at a moment’s notice, if not downright bleakness at times. For of course, it will end in unrest and bad luck – with a possible respite for As’ad, despite everything. As he bids a final, respectful farewell to his most spectacular dump-site find, he seems to have retained some comfort and salvation along the way, looking forward without flinching away. One hopes for further finds – for As’ad and from Al-Daradji.

Hanging Gardens is an Iraqi-Palestinian-Saudi Arabian-Egyptian-UK co-production, staged by Ishtar Iraq Film Production, Margaret Glover and ODEH FILMS. It was co-produced by Mohamed Hefzy, Daniel Ziskind, Film Clinic Indie Distribution and Ahmed Yassin. Its international sales are managed by True Colours.