Itineraries

Life after the Fall

Life after the Fall

IRAK / UNITED KINGDOM 2008. 35 mm. Color. 155’

In 2003, the United States put an end to the Iraqi dictatorship. After an absence of thirty years, Kasim Abid returns to Baghdad and for four years he films the lives of the family he had left behind. The footage covers everything from evening dances to the fuel shortage, the arrest of Saddam Hussein, skyrocketing unemployment, the rebuilding of the city and the attacks that occur every day; Abid’s family is ready for change but at the same time it must fight off a strong sense of desperation. Life after the Fall explores the everyday life of the Iraqis and the problems they confront.


  • Director: Kasim Abid
  • Producer: Kasim Abid
  • Screenwriter: Kasim Abid
  • Director of Photography: Kasim Abid
  • Artistic Director: --
  • Editor: Maysoon Pachachi
  • Sound: Peter Hodges
  • Music: --
  • Cast: Kasim Abid’s family
  • Language and Subtitles: Arabic with French and Spanish subtitles

Kasim Abid

Kasim Abid is a cameraman, producer and director from Iraq. He received a degree in Fine Arts in Baghdad and then studied film at VGIK in Moscow. He moved to London in 1982, where he worked for various British networks. In addition to making documentaries for TV, Abid, along with some colleagues, founded the Independent Film and TV College in Baghdad (IFTVC), for young Iraqi filmmakers.
In 2005, Kasim Abid won the Prize for Excellence in the Arts, awarded by the British newspaper The Muslim News. His most recent work, Life after the Fall won the prize for Best Film at the Munich International Film Festival and at the Arab Film Festival that takes place in California, as well as the Golden Hawk at the Arab Film Festival of Rotterdam

Filmography

Naji al-Ali: an Artist with Vision, 1999; Surda Check Point (mediometraje_ medium-length film), 2005; Life After the Fall, 2008.