Hanging Gardens

When As’ad, a 12-year-old rubbish picker, adopts an American sex doll from the Baghdad dumps, he crosses into a perilous red zone, finding himself caught in the crossfire between abusive forces of commercialism and fundamentalism in a world where defenders of humanism have lost their power. He embraces the courage it takes to not just survive, but live.

Director: Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji

Cast: Wissam Diyaa, Jawad Al Shukrchi, Hussain Muhammad Jalil, Akram Mazen Ali, Karar Shaaban Abdel Sada, Ali Farhan, Mahdi Al Fartousi, Jafer Al Sheikh

Audience-only score — full critic data not yet in the ReelXO vault.