Deed News

LONDON (October 17, 2022) — Veteran documentary filmmaker Maysoon Pachachi‘s debut fiction feature OUR RIVER…OUR SKY will have its UK premiere at the 30th edition of Raindance Film Festival (26 October – 5 November 2022).

Programmed in Raindance Film Festival’s “Homegrown” strand, the October 29 UK Premiere at Curzon Cinema Soho will be presented by the film’s London-based director, who will be joined by several of the film’s UK-based cast and crew.

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Mike Leigh, Oscar nominated director: “This is a terrific film! I’m deeply impressed”.

Ben Whishaw, Actor: “The script had a humour even in the midst of all the brokenness, and when we read it at the Royal Court, you could feel this powerful response from the audience, even from the stage – that these little snapshots of this neighbourhood were true, that they were tender. There was a quiet steeliness underneath it. It was like a protest, but it was also like a poem.”

E. Nina Rothe (MOVING IMAGE MIDDLE EAST): “…beautiful, haunting…”

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The film is the first international co-production of a feature written and directed by women of Iraqi origin and was written by Maysoon Pachachi (Iranian Journey (2000), Return to the Land of Wonders (2004) and Our Feelings Took the Pictures: Open Shutters Iraq (2008), in collaboration with co-writer Irada Al-Jubori – a Baghdad-based author. In 2012, the script won the $100,000 IWC Schaffhausen Gulf Filmmaker Award at Dubai International Film Festival – presented to the film’s director by Head of Jury, Cate Blanchett.

OUR RIVER…OUR SKY is an ensemble film of intersecting stories that takes place in the last week of 2006 – between Christmas and New Year. It tells the stories of ordinary Iraqis trying to live their everyday lives amidst intense unpredictable sectarian violence. The central character of the film – described by KQED (USA) as a “fiction writer played with great charm and heart by Darina Al Joundi” is a single mother and novelist, who struggles to make sense of the fragmentation of her world. Shortly before the New Year, following the unexpected news of Saddam Hussein’s execution, Sara and her neighbors brace themselves for an uncertain future while trying to sustain a fragile sense of hope.

Director Maysoon Pachachi said: “When I set up my film production company in London in 1993, it was in direct response to the Gulf War. Since then, I have aimed to share authentic stories of Iraqis and other people from the Middle East with British audiences – initially through a documentary film I made for Channel 4 and now, many years later, with this ensemble narrative inspired by the lives of real people coping during the time of intense sectarian violence that began unfolding in 2006.”

Since launching its festival tour in 2021 in the formerly war-torn city of Sarajevo, the film was presented at highly anticipated screenings in the MENA region at Cairo IFF, Slemani IFF, Amman IFF and at Franco-Arab Film Festival in Baghdad. The film was also selected for Arab film festivals in San Francisco, Berlin and Rotterdam and met with well attended screenings at Arab World Institute in Paris and Institut Lumière in Lyon, France.

The film gained critical acclaim following its Arab world premiere at Cairo International Film Festival, after which Kais Kassem for Aljazeera.net wrote: “…one of the best films featured in Horizons of New Arab Cinema Competition … using a convincing cinematic style that poses questions about what is happening now and what happened before”.

Elsewhere in the MENA region, the film was supported by Sanad and Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation in UAE, Arab Fund for Arts and Culture-AFAC and Doha Film Institute. In Europe the film was supported by Eurimages, MEDIA/Creative Europe, CNC in France and British Film Institute as well as by funds in Germany (MDM) and Switzerland (Visions Sud Est).

The international cast includes Iraqi actors based inside and outside of Iraq, including Basim Hajar (Sweden), Meriam Abbas and Ali El Kareem (Germany) and renowned Iraq-based actor Mahmoud Abo Al Abbas. London-based actors Zaydun Khalaf, Amed Hashimi, Labwa Arab and Badia Obaid are also featured in the ensemble cast. Iraqi musical artists involved in the soundtrack for the film include UK-based artists Ehsan Emam and Khyam Allami.

Produced by Maysoon Pachachi & Talal Al-Muhanna (Oxymoron Films / UK), Talal Al-Muhanna (Linked Productions / Kuwait), Patrice Nezan & Laurent Versini (Les Contes Modernes / France and Alexander RIS (Neue Mediopolis Filmproduktion / Germany, the film features cinematography by Jonathan Bloom (The Last King of Scotland).

World Sales are handled by The Party Film Sales and MAD Solutions handles the film’s distribution across the Arab world. The Arabic title of the film is KULSHI MAKOO.

OUR RIVER..OUR SKY will celebrate its UK Film Premiere at Raindance film Festival on October 29

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