In Irkalla – Gilgamesh’s Dream, two Iraqi street kids are rapping while they’re crossing a bridge across the Tigris. “Protests, guns, smoke bombs,” Chum Chum (Youssef Husham Al-Thahabi) raps, following his friend Moody’s (Hussein Raad Zuwayr). They’re on their way to see Chum Chum’s sister Sarah (Lojin Star Naimal), who works at a night club. Moody has plans for the three of them, buying passports and tickets out of Baghdad to Amsterdam. Chum Chum, though, is reluctant to leave Baghdad because of his fixation with the legendary tale of Gilgamesh. He also thinks that one of the older street people is Gilgamesh because of the latter’s strength. Gilgamesh and the city of Irkalla is also his way of processing what’s happening.
The apprehension towards a film like this is understandable because of how familiar the realist iconography is. Realism, even if we’re seeing it through the eyes of the diaspora, has tendencies towards exploitative poverty porn. Not in Irkalla – Gilgamesh’s Dream is a film where every character wants to run the world or corners of it. They’re abrasive, bad people who do good things and vice versa, the archetypal hearts of gold. The film’s first five minutes looked gray and I was relieved when the sun finally appeared. Maybe it’s those aesthetic and writing qualities that make me like the film. There’s an air of authenticity here, and maybe I just like watching hustlers and people steal stuff from other people.
Image Credit: Courtesy of TIFF
- Rated: Unrated
- Genre: Drama
- Release Date: 9/9/2025
- Directed by: Mohamed Al Daradji
- Starring: Hussein Raad Zuwayr, Youssef Husham Al-Thahabi
- Written by: Karim Traïdia, Mohamed Al Daradji
- Studio: Iraqi Independent Film Center
