Flavours of Iraq, directed by Léonard Cohen and co-directed by French-Iraqi journalist Feurat Alani, is a powerful animated documentary that explores Alani's childhood memories of 1980s Baghdad and his family's experience as exiles in Paris. The film, translated from the French title Le Parfum d’Irak, uses stylized, expressionist animation reminiscent of silhouette cutouts to convey the piercingly insistent forms of memory.
Story of Exile and Family
The narrative is framed by the funeral of Alani's father, a prominent leftist exile forced out of Iraq due to his opposition to Saddam Hussein. Mourners from Iraq's 1970s socialist diaspora share anecdotes, prompting Alani to recall his own visits to his extended family in Iraq at the end of the 1980s. The film vividly captures the sensory experiences of Baghdad and Falluja, from the taste of ice-cream to the fragrances of young men's hair oil.
A Dual Existence
Alani navigates a double life: as a next-generation Iraqi in French exile, and later as a French journalist in US-occupied Iraq. There, he feels like an exiled westerner in the Middle East, deeply alienated by Islamist extremism and angered by the US-led occupation, which is symbolized by a ghostly caterpillar wriggling across the screen. The film is strongest in its childhood segments, drawing inspiration from Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, and carries urgency and muscular force.
Flavours of Iraq is screening at Bertha DocHouse, London from 24 July.
