EXCLUSIVE: True Colours has boarded world sales on Iraqi filmmaker Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji’s Baghdad-set, coming-of-age tale Hanging Gardens ahead of its world premiere in Venice’s Horizons Extra sidebar and released the trailer.
The Rome-based company has a growing track record in handling Arab-language features having previously sold award-winning 2020 Palestinian-Jordanian production 200 Meters and Moroccan action romance Zanka Contact.
A daring portrait of childhood amid the ruins of conflict, Hanging Gardens revolves around a young boy called As’ad who ekes out a living as a rubbish picker in the dumps of Baghdad, which are nicked locally as the “hanging gardens”.
When he discovers a discarded American sex doll, he falls under its spell and takes the taboo item back to the family home.
His older brother beats him for bringing disgrace to the family and the boy seeks refuge in the dumps, where he teaches his new companion Arabic and sets her to work to make ends meet.
Hanging Gardens is Yassin’s debut feature after short films Children Of God and Stray revolving around child characters impacted by the Iraqi War and the near two decades of civil violence that have followed in its wake.
“I have twin goals – to question the status quo and to entertain. I want to pose questions not by being provocative or causing distress, simply by telling an emotionally engaging story, in which characters consider – ‘what if?’ – and audiences wonder – ‘what would I do in their shoes?’,” said Yassin Al Daradji.
The young actors and supporting crew were cast out of the director’s childhood Baghdad neighborhood.
“They are the experts in the film’s themes and dilemmas and my creative partners. We’ve walked a fine line to convey the truth of As’ad’s story in its most intimate and poignant details,” he added. “The result bears witness to what it takes not just to survive but to live with meaning and integrity in present-day Iraq.”
The feature is produced by Huda Al Kadhimi of Baghdad and Amman-based production company Ishtar Iraq Film Production, U.K. producer Margaret Glover and Palestinian producer May Odeh at Odeh Films.
Mohamed Hefzy and Daniel Ziskind at Cairo-based indie cinema powerhouse Film Clinic are on board as co-producers.
The production won the top prize at the ninth edition of the Final Cut in Venice post-production platform, supporting Middle Eastern and African films, last year and also picked up prizes at the CineGouna SpringBoard industry platform of Egypt’s El Gouna film festival.
True Colours has also announced the sales acquisition of Giornate degli Autori insurance scam drama Spaccaossa by Italian director Vicenzo Pirrotta, which world premieres in parallel section Giornate degli Autori’s Venetian Nights sidebar.
The film is inspired by the true story of an insurance scam in which a Palermo crime gang smashed the limbs of consenting victims, who would then receive a percentage of proceeds from fake accident claims.
The individuals who agreed to participate in the painful scam generally had a background of difficult, impoverished lives.
Selene Caramazza, seen recently in Sky Atlantic’s drama Christian, plays a vulnerable smack addict, who is pressured into having her bones broken by her older boyfriend, played by director Pirrotta.
Spaccaossa is the debut feature of Pirrotta, an established theatre director and actor, whose recent big-screen credits include The Bad Poet and The Traitor.
The film is produced by Attilio De Razza, Nicola Picone at Tramp Limited with Rai Cinema.
Further Venice titles on the True Colours slate include Princess and Burning Hearts, which both play in Horizons.