Mier.11 | 18:00 | Cineteca
Tickets
Official Section 2025

My Homeland

Tabarak Allah Abbas | 2024 | 12′

SYNOPSIS

When war breaks out in Baghdad in the early ’90s, Siham and Rakan decide to fight against the invading killer robots to escape the city and protect the future of their newborn daughter. An anime short about an Iraqi couple forced to flee their homeland during the First Gulf War.

Program Information

Day: Wed. 11th
Hora: 18:00
Sede: Cineteca

Projected with Winners

Espejo: Winners

Multimedia

Critical text

A short anime film about an Iraqi couple who must flee their homeland during the First Gulf War? Of course it is. The debut of Tabarak Allah Abbas, a young director and screenwriter trained at the prestigious HEAD film school in Geneva (Switzerland), is a display of untamed cinema that transcends geographical, generic and discursive boundaries. Combining documentary introspection with a vibrant visual imagination, the filmmaker gives us a love letter to her parents (superheroes in real life and, much more literally, in her film) and a powerful reflection on rootlessness and the capacity to narrate through multiple references, even if they seem far apart and incongruent with each other. My Homeland, premiered and awarded at the Visions du Réel festival, demonstrates the capacity of cinema to overcome barriers; it is also proof, from its very genesis, of the existence of multiple ways of feeling and telling stories. The idea that the visibility strategy for filmmakers from the global South necessarily involves realism and didactic denunciation is here forcefully and happily refuted. Tabarak Allah Abbas presents us with a monument to creativity and immeasurable love, whether it be that of parents for their children or of their children for their family and their land of origin. GABRIEL DOMÉNECH GONZÁLEZ

BIOGRAPHY

Tabarak Allah Abbas

Tabarak Allah AbbasTabarak Allah Abbas, of Iraqi origin, was born in Valais and raised in Geneva, Switzerland. As a young person, he began painting, which led him to his true passion: cinema. In 2023, he graduated with a degree in Film from HEAD Geneva (Haute École d'Art et Design). He has directed the films Les Fantômes du Paradis (2021), Un Papillon (2021), and Mawtini / My Homeland (2023).

FICHA TÉCNICA

DIRECCIÓN: Tabarak Allah Abbas

GUIÓN: Tabarak Allah Abbas

FOTOGRAFÍA: Tabarak Allah Abbas

MONTAJE: Camille Uliana

SONIDO: Henry Sims

MÚSICA: Loan Boulat

PRODUCCIÓN: Delphine Jeanneret (HEAD), Nicolas Wadimoff, Misam Ghadiali (SIZE MEDIA)

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