Another Day in Baghdad, the debut feature film of London-based Iraqi-Emirati filmmaker Maysoon Pachachi, has a campaign with a crowdfunding appeal to raise funds needed to bring their Baghdad-set multi-story narrative to cinematic life in 2018.
Since winning the IWC Schaffhausen Script Prize in Dubai in 2012 – presented by Cate Blanchett as jury
head – the veteran documentary director with a long list of Middle East projects has been financing her independent film with considerable success, bringing it close enough to being shot but with a partial financial shortfall to manage.
The new film is an ensemble piece that has been co-written with Baghdad-based novelist Irada Al Jabbouri, and co-produced by Kuwaiti film producer Talal Al-Muhanna. Set in in a typically mixed residential neighborhood in the last week of 2006 – shortly before the execution of Saddam Hussein on December 30th that year – the story centers on Sara, a single mother and novelist struggling to maintain her sense of self and purpose. When her best friend and neighbor Sabiha, an ex-actress and Christian is forced into exile by a sectarian gang, Sara regains her will to write.
The main character’s story reflects the experiences of director Pachachi’s co-writer during the same period in which the film has been set. It also explains Irada's attitude towards the militarized violence that seeks to define the Iraqi status quo.
The final phase of crowdfunding aims to secure critical finance for the hiring of the film’s Arab cast and crew – many of whom who are ineligible for European financial support and include Iraqi refugees in Jordan (where part of the film will be shot).
For the next 4 weeks the team’s crowdfund appeal will be situated on Indiegogo.
For more information you can visit the film's Facebook, Twitter, or Website.
