Country guide · Asia
10 Essential Iraqi Films + 10 Movies Set in or About Iraq
Iraq on the atlas: the strongest films of its own cinema, and the films the rest of the world has set there. Every list is curated and ranked by hand.
10 Essential Iraqi Films
Native cinema in Iraq’s own creative voice — the passport route that earns visas and citizenship.
-
1. The President's Cake
In 1990s Iraq, as families struggle through war and shortages, every school is ordered to bake a cake for Saddam Hussein's birthday, and a resourceful nine-year-old girl scours her impoverished town for the impossible ingredients. A poignant, tender drama.
Curator’s note: Candidate native film held back by curator: missing accepted native-language fit, sole country-origin evidence, or explicit web-curated primary-country evidence.
-
2. Said Effendi
A humble teacher moving from one lodging to another settles among ordinary neighbors, whose everyday kindnesses and hypocrisies come quietly into view. A pioneering classic of Iraqi cinema.
Curator’s note: Said Effendi ranked among the strongest verified Iraq-authored features for craft, enduring reputation, influence, and importance within the national cinema.
-
3. Son of Babylon
In the chaotic aftermath of Saddam's fall, a stubborn Kurdish grandmother and her young grandson journey across a scarred Iraq searching for the boy's father, missing since the war. A moving road drama about a nation's mass graves and lingering grief.
Curator’s note: Candidate native film held back by curator: missing accepted native-language fit, sole country-origin evidence, or explicit web-curated primary-country evidence.
-
4. Another Day
In the years before Iraq's 1958 revolution, a peasant rallies his fellow villagers to rise up against a cruel landowner who has exploited and terrorized them for years. A drama of rural rebellion.
Curator’s note: Another Day ranked among the strongest verified Iraq-authored features for craft, enduring reputation, influence, and importance within the national cinema.
-
5. Homeland (Iraq Year Zero)
This sweeping documentary intimately chronicles the everyday lives of the filmmaker's own family and neighbors in Iraq in the months before and after the 2003 U.S. invasion, capturing a society on the brink and in freefall. A monumental record.
Curator’s note: Curator validation: native Iraq cinema candidate with Arabic original-language evidence.
-
6. Dol
On his wedding day, a young Kurdish man is forced to flee for his life, embarking on a perilous journey across the divided Kurdistan of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. A drama of borders, love, and a stateless people.
Curator’s note: Dol ranked among the strongest verified Iraq-authored features for craft, enduring reputation, influence, and importance within the national cinema.
-
7. Underexposure
In the turbulent days after the fall of Baghdad, an Iraqi filmmaker turns his camera on his friends and neighbors, capturing life amid the rubble and uncertainty. Shot on expired film stock, one of the first features made in post-invasion Iraq.
Curator’s note: Curator validation: native Iraq cinema candidate with Arabic original-language evidence.
-
8. Clash of Loyalties
During the British occupation after World War I, a defiant tribal sheikh leads peaceful resistance against colonial rule, only to be met with brutal force that ignites a wider Iraqi revolt. A sweeping historical epic.
Curator’s note: Curator validation: native Iraq cinema candidate with Arabic original-language evidence.
-
9. Where Is Gilgamesh?
When a priceless ancient tablet bearing the Epic of Gilgamesh is stolen from a museum, a dogged security guard sets out to recover it from a ring of smugglers, confronting his own demons along the way. A Kurdish-Iraqi thriller.
Curator’s note: Where Is Gilgamesh? ranked among the strongest verified Iraq-authored features for craft, enduring reputation, influence, and importance within the national cinema.
-
10. The Exam
In Iraqi Kurdistan, a young woman's unhappily married older sister is determined to help her pass the crucial university entrance exam by any means — including cheating — hoping to secure her a freer future. A tense, socially sharp drama.
Curator’s note: The Exam ranked among the strongest verified Iraq-authored features for craft, enduring reputation, influence, and importance within the national cinema.
10 Movies Set in or About Iraq
Outside filmmakers looking toward Iraq: optional perspectives for a wider journey.
-
1. A Time for Drunken Horses
Orphaned in a harsh Kurdish village on the Iran-Iraq border, five children fend for themselves, the eldest smuggling goods across the treacherous mountains to pay for his gravely ill little brother's surgery. Bahman Ghobadi's stark, unforgettable debut.
Curator’s note: A Time for Drunken Horses is a strong foreign-authored film whose sustained setting or subject engages with Iraq.
-
2. The Hurt Locker
During the Iraq War, a reckless, adrenaline-fueled sergeant leading a bomb-disposal team clashes with his cautious squadmates as each defused device brings them closer to catastrophe. Kathryn Bigelow's nerve-shredding, Oscar-winning war drama.
Curator’s note: The Hurt Locker is a strong foreign-authored film whose sustained setting or subject engages with Iraq.
-
3. Three Kings
At the close of the Gulf War, a few American soldiers stumble on a map to Saddam's stolen Kuwaiti gold and set off to grab it, only to be caught up in the human cost of the conflict they are leaving behind. A sharp, genre-bending war satire.
Curator’s note: Three Kings is a strong foreign-authored film whose sustained setting or subject engages with Iraq.
-
4. Buried
An American truck driver ambushed in Iraq wakes to find himself buried alive in a coffin with only a lighter and a cell phone — and a ticking clock — as he desperately tries to be found. A claustrophobic single-location thriller.
Curator’s note: Buried is a strong foreign-authored film whose sustained setting or subject engages with Iraq.
-
5. Battle for Haditha
This docudrama reconstructs the 2005 Haditha massacre from multiple sides — the U.S. Marines, the insurgents, and the Iraqi civilians caught between them — after a roadside bomb triggers a deadly retaliation. A raw, unflinching account.
Curator’s note: Battle for Haditha is a strong foreign-authored film whose sustained setting or subject engages with Iraq.
-
6. Green Zone
During the 2003 occupation of Baghdad, an army officer hunting for weapons of mass destruction that keep turning up nonexistent begins to suspect a cover-up reaching to the very top. Paul Greengrass's kinetic war thriller.
Curator’s note: Green Zone is a strong foreign-authored film whose sustained setting or subject engages with Iraq.
-
7. The Liberace of Baghdad
Holed up in a fortified Baghdad hotel amid the chaos of post-war Iraq, the country's most famous pianist waits for a visa to America, playing on as his world crumbles around him. An intimate, bittersweet documentary.
Curator’s note: The Liberace of Baghdad is a strong foreign-authored film whose sustained setting or subject engages with Iraq.
-
8. Curveball
A German intelligence agent obsessed with proving Iraq has weapons of mass destruction latches onto a dubious defector's claims, and his zeal helps grease the case for war. A biting satirical drama based on a true intelligence fiasco.
Curator’s note: Curveball is a strong foreign-authored film whose sustained setting or subject engages with Iraq.
-
9. Malesh Ehna Benetbahdel
When an Egyptian coffee-shop owner sends his hapless son to Baghdad to deliver a shipment of mangoes, the young man is arrested for insulting Saddam just as the U.S. invasion begins, spiraling into farce. An Egyptian comedy.
Curator’s note: Malesh Ehna Benetbahdel is a strong foreign-authored film whose sustained setting or subject engages with Iraq.
-
10. Invader
A Spanish army doctor on a peacekeeping mission in Iraq survives an attack on his convoy, and the disturbing truth of what happened haunts him back home, where powerful forces would rather it stay buried. A tense political thriller.
Curator’s note: Invader is a strong foreign-authored film whose sustained setting or subject engages with Iraq.
Selected by the FilmsAroundThe.World editorial desk
Lists are ranked for craft, enduring reputation, influence, and depth of engagement with place. Native selections require a verified creative relationship to the country; souvenir selections require an outside creative lead and a country-centered story. Read the methodology.
Editorial review: 2026-07-13
Nearby on the atlas
More Asia guides: