Hanging Gardens(HKAFF2023)

Orizzonti Extra, Venice International Film Festival
Best Film, Critics Award for Arab Films

The first Iraqi movie in the official selection of Venice, this original drama-comedy set in modern-day Iran ignites an extreme clash of cultures. Two orphaned brothers, As’ad and Taha, work as scavengers in monstrous rubbish dumps (called the “Hanging Gardens”) on the edge of Baghdad. When As’ad finds a hi-tech American sex doll in the dump, he draws platonic comfort from the doll, while Taha initially recoils from the forbidden object, but soon they pimp the doll out to local youngsters eager for an encounter. Fundamentalism and consumerism collide in this unexpected coming-of-age tale that’s by turns melancholic and humorous.