After the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the images of the country that circulated in mainstream media were of destruction and violence, and a sensationalised visual landscape that robbed locals of their individuality. Shot on location in Iraq, this compelling fiction debut from seasoned documentary-maker Maysoon Pachachi paints a slice-of-life portrait of a mixed Baghdad neighbourhood during the tumultuous final week of 2006, a year memorably ended by the execution of Saddam Hussein.
Save for a scene where a bargeman fishes out of the water the body of a woman presumably killed for her association with foreign forces, Our River … Our Sky alludes to the horrors of war and sectarian violence in subtle and non-explicit terms. Booming over the ordinary activities of children playing or family meals are the deafening sounds of explosions and harrowing discussions of streets filled with corpses.
In its tapestry of intersecting stories, Pachachi’s film underlines how wartime turmoil is more than just bloodshed; it kills the normalcy of everyday life and the capacity for dreams. When life in the present is hanging by a thread, the future is a mirage.
At the centre of these interwoven lives is novelist Sara (Darina Al Joundi), who now uses the skills from her English literature PhD to translate paperwork for her fellow Iraqis. If the script, grappling with the burden of representation, occasionally draws certain supporting arcs in broad brushstrokes, Al Joundi’s nuanced and exquisitely moving performance brings an emotional weight to Sara’s dilemmas, as well as to other characters.
Emphasising the resilience of those who choose to remain, Pachachi’s film returns again and again to the river Tigris, a location that shows how the bond to a homeland is at once communal, spiritual, and fully corporeal.
• Our River … Our Sky is released on 20 October in UK cinemas.
