The backdrop is Baghdad, 2006. A city, still under US occupation, that is riven by sectarian tensions and simmering violence. This ambitious, multi-stranded drama attempts to trace the lives of a disparate group of people as they try to cling to normality while the capital tears itself apart. There are moments of stark beauty – a woman gazes across the roofs at dusk; music hangs in the air alongside the smoke from the bomb attacks in other neighbourhoods. But the film feels a little overstretched between its multiple storylines, meaning that we get glimpses of life, but little in the way of real engagement.
