Amal and Mustafa are an Iraqi Turkman couple that have shared a long life together in northern Iraq. When Amal decides to renovate their home after a decade of war, Mustafa retreats to the garden, where he encounters the curious gaze of his grandniece and her camera.

Filmed in Kirkuk, Iraq in 2012.
32 min, HD, Turkish and Arabic with English subtitles.

Directed and Filmed by Nadia Shihab
in collaboration with Amal & Mustafa Sabir
Edited by Sara Maamouri and Nadia Shihab
Sound Mix by Philip Perkins
Color/Online by Jesse Spencer

With Support from
Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC)
Independent Television Service (ITVS)
Pacific Pioneer Fund
Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC)
San Francisco Film Society - FilmHouse Residency

Dubai International Film Festival, Cinema du Reel / Centre Pompidou, Walker Art Center, Sursock Museum of Contemporary Arts, Mizna Twin Cities Film Festival, Arab Film Festival, Aflamuna

"In Kirkuk, in northern Iraq, almost ten years after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, the Kurdish, Turkish and Iraqi flags fly side by side. The filmmaker of Amal’s Garden approaches this coexistence obliquely, with infinite tenderness, filming only what is intimate..." Charlotte Garson, Cinema du Reel

"A vivid portrait of a family, and a suggestive portrait of a complex community, with a few small strokes" - Shelly Kraicer, Vancouver International Film Festival

"A delicate and empathetic portrayal" - Karol Kućmierz, Ars Independent Film Festival

"A story of tenderness amid ever shifting conditions. It captures the of life of a small embattled family living under the hegemony of three competing flags- now four-and it shows the resilience of an ethnic minority in a pseudo state where those who rule are always changing.” Nezar AlSayyad, University of California, Berkeley