10 Best Iraqi Movies to Watch First

10 Essential Iraqi Films

Ranked native cinema in Iraq’s own creative voice.

1. 

   1. The President's Cake

   2025

   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.

2. 

   2. Said Effendi

   سعيد أفندي · 1956

   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.

3. 

   3. Son of Babylon

   ابن بابل · 2010

   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.

4. 

   4. Another Day

   يوم آخر · 1979

   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.

5. 

   5. Homeland (Iraq Year Zero)

   وطن: العراق السنة صفر · 2015

   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.

6. 

   6. Dol

   2007

   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.

7. 

   7. Underexposure

   2005

   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.

8. 

   8. Clash of Loyalties

   1983

   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.

9. 

   9. Where Is Gilgamesh?

   گێلگامێش لە کوێیە؟ · 2024

   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.

10. 

    10. The Exam

    ئەزموون · 2021

    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.