June 2024
Sherko Abbas
, 2019
, 60 min
, 2021
, 7 min
In 1985 a group of Kurdish fighters, known as a “Peshmerga,” embarked on a mission to attack one of the Iraqi army’s camps in the north of the country. They traveled on the Sirwan river by small raft to cross the area controlled by the Iraqi army. This footage is part of an old archive…
, 4 min
Sharwal is the name given to the traditional trousers that are worn by men in Kurdistan. Meticulously pleated and made from tightly woven wool, Sharwals can be filled with air and used to assist in flotation over bodies of water. The air bubble created when it is submerged into water has both a form and…
, 2022
, 12 min
Encounters on the Tigris follows a journey taken by artist and filmmaker Sherko Abbas in 2022, along the ancient Tigris river, in search of previously undocumented oral traditions and the ecological knowledge they hold. His journey begins in the Kurdish Zakho district of northern Iraq and ends in Al Faw, where the river meets the Persian…
, 19 min
, 10 min
, 25 min
Cineholic follows a group of friends from Kirkuk and their love affairs with film since they were young. The story traverses their memories related to this passion, while also alluding to the difficulties of living in Iraq at the ongoing backdrop of dictatorship, war, instability and insecurity. The film also traces the catastrophes of neoliberalism,…
, 23 min
The film explores the role of music in the Iraq War, particularly the U.S. government’s use of music as a tool of propaganda. Using a variety of news footage, as well as archival footage shot by Abass’ sister, a cellist in the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra, the film demonstrates how in 2003, the US administration,…
The Iran-Iraq war is often described as the 20th century’s longest war and its political ramifications arguably exist in Iraq to this day. Yet, its story is often overlooked. In this animated film project, Sherko Abbas draws on his own childhood memories of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, as well as using found images…
, 8 min
The Kurdish uprising of 1991 against Saddam Hussein’s brutal dictatorship is a pivotal event commemorated by all Kurdish peoples. This day marked the defeat of the Ba’athist regime in Kurdistan’s cities and each year, Kurdish channels run footage of the moment that people broke into Sulaymaniyah’s notorious prison Amna Suraka, The Red Prison (or Security…
