Window
Fall Grant 2011 - Development Stage
Koutaiba Al-Janabi / Feature Narrative / Iraq, Qatar / 90 min / Colour / Original Language: Arabic / Interests: Drama, Middle Eastern, Thriller, Based on a True Story
Synopsis
Baghdad under the American occupation. Iraq is in a power vacuum; anarchy is rife; curfews are in place and suspicion is everywhere. Ahmed, a young man, lives in a squalid hotel room with the young woman to whom he was married through family arrangements. Ahmed longs to get away, and dreams to go to the West. His wife is religious, shy and scared of anything new. Ahmed is lured into joining a terrorist group for money. Because of this, his friends do not want to see him – and his wife does not speak to him anyway. Ahmed’s younger brother tells him about some work that turns out to be a scheme of selling human organs – one of Ahmed’s kidneys is removed in a shabby surgery. He barely survives, only to be blackmailed out of the money he received – by his own brother. What happens to his dream? What will his young wife Fatima do? Can she cope? Or is she leaving him too?
Credits
- Director
- Koutaiba Al-Janabi
- Screenwriter
- Koutaiba Al-Janabi
- Producer
- Koutaiba Al-Janabi, Hanna Heffner
About the Director
Koutaiba Al-Janabi was born in Baghdad, and studied photography and cinematography in Budapest, Hungary. He worked as a producer/director for television, as cinematographer on feature films, and he now directs and produces short films and documentaries ('The Train', 'Wasteland', 'The Ever Restless Man'). His feature film 'Leaving Baghdad', won first prize in Dubai, a British Independent Film Award, and was nominated for Cinema for Peace Award in Berlin. 'Stories of Passers Through' (2018), a feature film shot over 30 years is being shown at film festivals worldwide. 'The Woodman' is a feature film in post-production.