In the marshlands of Southern Iraq, Ibrahim and his family live in solitude as strangers to the outside world, their lives tethered to the river, the reeds, and the buffalo they tend. Silent and withdrawn, Ibrahim finds comfort only in his buffalo, his sole companion. But as the rivers dry and the landscape withers, Ibrahim faces unrelenting forces threatening the only life he has ever known, and the only creature he has ever understood.
Ali Yahya is an Iraqi filmmaker. Born in 1994, he has lived and worked his entire life in Baghdad — a city where history and chaos intertwine, shaping both memory and identity. His journey into storytelling didn’t begin with cinema but with an exploration of the human mind, studying mental health and psychology to understand the silent battles we carry within. He discovered that storytelling isn’t just about crafting narratives; it’s about capturing fleeting moments of existence — the echoes of voices often unheard, the spaces between words, and the emotions that resist definition. For him, cinema is not merely a medium; it’s a vessel to question, to feel, and to exist beyond the tangible. Cinema is an invitation: to witness, to reflect, and to discover the unseen layers of both the world and ourselves.
