Experiencing Interruptions?

Our River...Our Sky

SARA is a single mother and novelist, shocked into silence, at a time of extreme sectarian violence and nightly curfews
in Baghdad. She and her neighbours let us into their everyday lives, as they struggle to resist the fragmentation of their
world and renew a fragile sense of hope and belief in a better future.

  • Maysoon Pachachi
    Director
  • Irada Al-Jubori
    Writer
    Return to the Land of Wonders
  • Maysoon Pachachi
    Writer
  • Talal Al-Muhanna
    Producer
    Whose Country?, Jaddoland
  • Patrice Nezan
    Producer
    Corpus Christi, The Tower
  • Darina Al Joundi
    Key Cast
    "Sara"
    The Man Who Sold His Skin
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Kulshi Makoo (Arabic)
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    Drama
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 50 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    August 19, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    1,500,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    Iraq
  • Language:
    Arabic
  • Shooting Format:
    HD3K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1:2.39
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Sarajevo Film Festival
    Sarajevo
    Bosnia and Herzegovina
    August 19, 2021
    World Premiere
    Dealing with the Past section
  • Cairo International Film Festival
    Cairo
    Egypt
    November 27, 2021
    MENA Premiere
    Horizons of Arab Cinema section
  • Arab Film Festival USA
    San Francisco
    United States
    November 20, 2021
    North American Premiere
  • Slemani International Film Festival
    Sulaymaniyah
    Iraq
    December 20, 2021
    Iraq National Premiere
    Feature Film Competition
Distribution Information
  • The Party Film Sales
    Sales Agent
    Country: France
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Maysoon Pachachi

Maysoon Pachachi is a London-based filmmaker of Iraqi origin. She studied Philosophy at University College London and then filmmaking at the London Film School. She was for many years a documentary and drama film editor in the UK, and has worked since 1994 as an independent film director, largely making films in and about the Middle East.

Completed films, as director, include award-winning “Iranian Journey” (ZDF/Arte 1998), “Return to the Land of Wonders” (ZDF/Arte 2004) and “Our Feelings Took the Pictures: Open Shutters Iraq” (Jury Special Mention, AFF Rotterdam 2009).

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

I’m a filmmaker of Iraqi origin with deep roots in that country and, at the same time, I am a Londoner who has lived in the city for almost all of my adult life. I often feel like a person whose home is on a bridge with a view of both sides of the river.

Iraqis have lived through decades of dictatorship, war and sanctions and since 2003, ongoing extreme daily violence and chaos. Their lives are ruptured and full of loss, with no breathing space to process and repair. This is the emotional context in which people get on with daily lives in a situation where the unthinkable has become the norm, where you have to 'act life’ as people in Sarajevo used to say. The powerful external circumstances affect everyone and create a sense that you are living a story that is at the same time personal, and collective.
I and my co-writer, Irada Al-Jubori, an Iraqi novelist, were interested in finding a fictional form which would reflect this experience.