No Paradise If You Are Killed By A Woman (2026) Venice 2026

One of the greatest characters in any film.

NO PARADISE IF YOU ARE KILLED BY A WOMAN is quite simply one of the greatest films of 2026. Period, full stop.

The film is the story of Vyan, a Kurdish woman who is acting as a sniper  fighting the Islamic State in the Mosul of 2016. When she gets word that her younger sister might still be alive, she begins a deadly hunt through the city to find her.

I have left a huge amount of details out. I have done that on purpose because you will want to see how this unfolds for yourself.

While the film is a large part a thriller, the truth is this is a film that is really a look at war, what it does to soldiers and more importantly what war and religious fundamentalism does to women and non-believers. What is so stunning about the film is that the film keeps things tense and the audience on the edge of its seat by giving us things to think about while making us wonder who is going to live and who is going to die.

The first 20 minutes of this film is one of the most arresting openings of any film this year. The film opens with Vyan moving through some ruins on the hunt for a target. Its a perfectly constructed series of set pieces that pull us in and drag us along. Its at this point the film changes into something else, before changing again. Its a film that never does what we expect. No turn is exactly as we thought.  Most importantly the film never loses track of the woman at the center of the film. As she goes through the ringer so do we. I wanted to look away but I couldn't leave Vyan at any point in her journey. Vyan is one of the greatest heroes ever to grace the screen and we want her to compete her mission and go home

When the end came I was exhausted and broken because of what I witnessed because the tension was so high.

Based on the stories of several women who fought against the Islamic State and inspired by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad, the film is more real than pretty much every other war film. Perhaps it helps that it was filmed in Mosul so what we see is what we get.

I was rocked.  When it ended I jumped on line and sent out emails to people putting the film on their radar.

I can't express just how magnificent this film is. Its an action film that says volumes about warfare and what it does to everyone it touches. Its a film that makes us feel pain as much as suspense.

You absolutely must see this.

This will be one of the best films you will see this year.

Addendum: This film was picked as Iraq's entry for the Oscars

President's Cake (2025) opens tomorrow

Set during the reign of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, this is the story of Lamia, a young girl from a poor family, who is told by her teacher that she must make a cake for the President's birthday or there will be dire consequences. She then is forced to go out to get the ingredients she needs.

This film is on the Oscar Short List this year for Best International Feature. It is a film that has been recommended to me by several friends... and now having seen it it is a film I will need to see again away from the Oscars and the word of mouth. I want to revisit because I need to get the distance from the hype and discussion that made me jump into the film too quickly.

I should say straight up that this is a very good film. I like it, hence the desire to revisit, but I didn't find the greatness that some did, and as a result I am dealing with the collision between the words of people I respect and the the film I saw on the screen.

My issues with the film come from two places:

The first is that while the film is very much about the trials of the young girl at the center, the film isn't about Lamia, the girl at the at the center. What I mean by this is that the quest to get the things to make the cake is simply the reason for writer director Hasan Hadi to explore society, particularly the one that existed under Saddam. The trip is designed to bring the girl into places where things can happen that will be reflected in the story. Why do the things happen? Because the director is trying to tell a larger tale.

While this is an issue it could have been solved had there not been a second problem. The second problem is that the Lamia, played by Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, is little more than just a place holder for the audience.  Yes, Nayyef is good, but the script doesn't give her enough to work with to stand out. Yes she is often the focus of events and is at the center of the screen, but there isn't enough to the character for her to be a fully formed person. I apologize for making this point but right around the time I was making my best of 2025 lists I had a couple of conversations about the difficulty of having a central character who is the "main" one but who isn't. What I mean by that is the central character who exists just to move the story or audience to a place where the events can transpire that the director wants to highlight. You have to create a character that stands out from the rest or alternately have an actor who can hold the center.  I don't think there is enough of a character here for that to happen.

While I don't hate THE PRESIDENT'S CAKE I definitely will need to revist.

Al-ayyam al-tawila (aka Long Days) (1980)

This is a reminder that Unseen Films is not just about unseen films from today, but all days.

This is about the Iraqi  coup attempt in 1959 that included Saddam Hussein. It went sideways, so he and his fellow plotters go into hiddening and are hunted by the police. Its an emotionally over done film told in a somber, over serious way that, along with its static staging makes the film feel about 10 hours long.

This movie has an official run time of 150 minutes according to IMDB but therinternet says there is a 6 hour version hidden away. It doesn't have an official release streaming and exists through sketchy versions on You Tube where 131 minute version labeled LONG DAYS has English Caption over French subtitles. Its a film I should not mention because its pure propaganda but at the same time Unseen was set up to highlight, or in this case to low light, films off the beaten path... and this is off the path.

Terrance Young, probably best known for his work for the Bond franchise, is listed as one of the directors. I have not done any research but someone on Letterboxd said they can find no actual evidence that Young worked on the film, though they mention this was around the time on INCHON,  and his name may have been used to give the film some credibility.  Certainly it's much less static than any of his other films. It does have some of the melodramic turns that he was capable of, but at the same time his films always felt more alive.

The film is a lot of seriously acted scenes with people sitting around while serious and suspenseful music plays. They change locations as the secret police come. There is always a discussion of what to do next. Saddam is figured prominently of course. It's okay, but it's not particularly compelling. There is no sense of a reason as to why this story is being told beyond because Saddam is involved. It's really just a bland attempt at a real life political thriller.

And isn't "bad" as such just incredibly dull. It's a bunch of people sitting around being serious. It feel like a stage play at times To be fair this could have been good film if it was about an hour shorter . I don't want to think what a six hour version would be like because so little "happens" that is interesting. This is a film that is all about making Saddam look good and stroke his ego because it looks like a serious movie. I've read some things that this was instrumental for helping create the cult of personality. Looking at the film now I can only imagine that happened because the regime pushed the film as something people needed to ingest.

Not recommended for general audiences- but for those who want an unseen film off the beaten path- recommended.

The Lions By The River Tigris (2025) DOC NYC 2025

When you see THE LIONS BY THE RIVER TIGRIS be patient and stay to the end. I am saying this up front because this is slowly building film that creeps up on you and hits you from behind. It's not that there is any sudden revelation, rather it's the act of spending time with the people on the screen makes them more than just figures on the screen and instead become people you want to spend time with.

The film is the portraitr of three men and the people around them. Bashar, Fakfri, and Fadel are all residents of the Iraqi city of Mosul which for under the control of Islamic State. The city was pretty much destroyed in the fighting to drive out the Islamic State and retake the city. With the destruction came the loss of culture. Or  rather the near loss of culture  for the three men are fighting to bring culture back to the city, and prevent looting of homes as well as artifacts, even if it means working miracles in the ruins.

From the opening sequence where a violin is played among the rubble and a discussion of acoustics occurs I was hooked. There was something so real about a music lover trying to figure out the best way to play his instument in an unexpected place. I bonded with the guys and I wanted to hear their stories. 

What makes the work is that in looking at the effort to bring back Mosul and culture we clearly see that no matter how bad things are people don't lose their humanity. People will always look toward something outside of themselves in order to bring hope. Sometimes its sports, or comics, or art or music, but always its something is there to make us want to go on. 

I was moved.

See this film and be moved.

Up To G Cup (2022) HRWFF 2022

UP TO G CUP is a delight .

The film is the story of a Kurdish woman and a Yazidi woman who open up a shop selling women’s under garments in Iraq. It’s a delightful portrait of two woman following their passion while at the same time being a bracing look at a society that puts men in the fore front.  The road to success is not an easy one but the two women are game to try.

What I love about the film is that no matter what  you think the film is going to be it isn’t that.  This is a film that is as surprising as real life. It’s the cinematic equivalent to reading a news story or a guide book about a place and then when you go there you find it is completely different than what you expected. For me this is the result of two decades of watching TV news of Iraq and having it be a certain way in my head because of all the images of war. The reality is of course that it is a place of just regular people.

I was delighted.

Late in the film there is a film are some scenes of some older women in the shop sitting around talking. It’s a wonderful moment because it means that the place has become something. If people come and talk and are engaged, especially older ladies then you’ve created something special.

This film truly is something special. It is a film that reminds us that the images in the media are really just people and that we all share a common humanity.

House Two (2018) Tribeca 2018

While I have seen films I really liked Michael Epstein‘s HOUSE TWO was the first great film I saw at Tribeca 2018. A shattering, heartbreaking and infuriating look at the massacre of civilians in Haditha Iraq by US Marines, it made me physically ill because of the massive waves of injustice involved in the whole affair. In no uncertain terms this film will piss you off for a whole slew of reasons.

The story in the briefest of terms is that in the aftermath of a roadside bombing 24 civilians were killed, a number of them women and children who were hiding in a bedroom in “House Two”. When the story broke because Time magazine got the story after CNN passed NCIS investigated. However there was a political agenda at work and it suddenly became clear to the defense and NCIS that all was not kosher.

Rarely has a film made me physically ill because things are just wrong. My stomach knotted and I wanted to get up and leave the theater. From the methodical and deliberate murder of women and children, to the manipulation of evidence, to the intentional freeing of guilty parties the whole Haditha affair stinks to high heaven and I was made sick by it. My regular day job is in criminal justice and if any of the stuff that happened here happened where I work the people involved would have been shitcanned.

While not a perfect film, it springs a couple of things out of left field (the video of the massacre aftermath for example- who is the soldier who shot it?), the film is still incredibly powerful. It’s an unending series of body blows that will leave you shaking your head and talking to yourself. I wanted to scream.

What is most sickening about the film is that the quest for justice became a quest to protect the name of the Marine Corps. The Marines never had a massacre of civilians- or so they want people to think. By throwing justice out the window they keep their record intact . However as one of the defense lawyers says near the end, the fact that they are offering a puissant plea deal after all that happens makes them all look even worse than if they had admitted what happened and sent the offenders to jail.

I can’t recommend this film enough.

One of the very best films at Tribeca 2018 and of the year as well.

For tickets and more information go here.

Letters From Baghdad (2016) DOC NYC 2016

Portrait of Gertrude Bell who was a leading authority on the Middle East during the early part of the 20th century. She was one of the people involved in the redrawing of the lines of the various countries after the First World War  and the founding of Iraq in particular.

Uneven exploration of Bell's life told through her letters (read by Tilda Swinton) and the writings of her contemporaries (acted out as a series of talking heads) is very good at explaining who the person Bell was but not very good at explaining why anyone thought her opinion was of any importance. As portrayed here we see that she is a very intelligent young woman who loved the desert. We get the sense that she respected the people around here and thrived in learning about the cultures she encountered. But as told here there is never a jump, never an ah ha moment, where we suddenly know what got her the respect. To be certain once she is in the thick of things it kind of makes sense, but even so there is no sense of how we got there- shes at school, she meets some people (who we don't really know), she falls in love with a man (who is a cipher), she writes some books (which we really get no sense of), she's traveling and the Ottoman's are wary of her- but why?

Forgive me. I've read on Bell. I have a friend who loves her and I know her story and the whys hows she rose to prominence. Some of it is here but some of it is not and the film is not as strong as it should be.

Even on a personal level there are huge gaps in the telling  with many people and events glossed over. Yes we get a sense of her inner life but not wholly the life she lived.

I'm in a quandary- much of this works but so much is missing or missing context that the film just doesn't come together as a whole. I kept wondering why I should care despite knowing the answer.

I suspect the over length of the film works against it since the film feels way too leisurely paced for what it is.

A disappointment.

In Brief: El Clasico (2015) Tribeca 2016

Two brothers in the Kurdish territory of Iraq decide to set out to meet Cristiano Ronaldo of the Real Madrid soccer team as means of proving to the father of the woman he loves that he is worthy to be her husband. Taking his brother, a Barcelona fan, along the pair sets out on an adventure to do something big

Nice sweet film scores many bonus points by  largely staying away from cliches. By the time it  kind of turns into your typical feel good film at the end the film has earned the right to at least have a little schmaltz.

I'm guessing that the one thing most people are going to mention is that the role of the brothers are played by two real life brothers, who are little people. Both major fans of the football teams they root for in the film and an interview I read with the director they helped in shaping pieces of the film. It took a little while before I stopped thinking about whether the casting of the brothers was stunt casting and just let the story play out. To be honest the leads could have been any brothers, at the same time if they hadn't been cast odds are this nice gem of a film would never have gotten any notice, which would be a shame.

Definitely worth your time

For tickets and more information go here.

Before Snowfall (2013) Tribeca 2013

This film will haunt you for hours after you see it. It may hang around the edges of your mind for days. It's one of those films that makes you sit up and go HELLO. It was a film I went into only because it was there and ended up walking out of it with a film high on the must recommend list. Easily one of the best films at Tribeca so far.

When Siyar's sister flees instead of going into an arranged marriage her brother, and man of the house, must go after her in order to kill her and return honor to their family. Its an epic journey of both body and soul as Siyar goes from Kurdish Iraq to Turkey, to Greece, to Berlin and finally Oslo. Along the way things get complicated when Siyar meets Evin, a girl who dresses as a boy and they become friends.

This is a truly epic story that will move you. Even as the film moves toward it's conclusion the film is rarely dark. This is not a brooding film about honor killing, rather it's a film about humanity and the ability to change. If the ending strikes a tragic chord (or series of chords) it's never cheap or out of place. What happens, and it's probably not what you expect, ultimately feels right for a story that is not some Hollywood wish fulfilment.

Possibly, perhaps, maybe, the only bad thing I can say bad about the film is that some of the performances are uneven, but owing to the vastness of the cast and the fact that it appears many are non-actors it's not surprising.

In all seriousness, go see this film. Its a wonderful little confection, extremely bittersweet, but worth tasting. Best of all it will stay with you for days and weeks afterward.

One of the best of Tribeca and one of my finds of the year.