Baghdad on Fire

Production year: 2023
Country: Iraq
Director: Karrar Al-Azzawi
Producer: Jørgen Lorentzen & Nefise Özkal Lorentzen

Nineteen-year-old Tiba and her friends are hopeful. They are fighting for democracy in Iraq. They are at the forefront of the biggest youth movement in the 20 years since the US invaded the country and deposed Saddam Hussein. Together with friends Khader and Yousif, she has started a medical team that sews and patches and helps brave young protesters when they have been bathed in tear gas yet again. They spend days and nights in tents in Tahrir Square in the centre of Baghdad. Here they discuss and plan how to bring freedom, democracy and change to Iraq. They are tired of militias, corrupt politicians and foreign troops defining the country.

Tiba has left the forced marriage she ended up in at 14 and is also fighting for the rights of other women. Baghdad on Fire is an energetic account from inside the demonstrations and of the new Iraqi youth. A story full of hope and faith and courage and joy, but also a story full of pain and the cost that courage and the fight for freedom will always have.