The Flowers of Kirkuk premieres at the Rome Film Festival

A movie about the tragic love story between an upper class Iraqi woman and a Kurdish doctor persecuted by Saddam Hussein's regime premieres at the Rome Film Festival. Tragic love, women's rights and genocide are just some of the themes of The Flowers of Kirkuk (Golakani Kirkuk), the first international production since the Gulf War shot entirely on location in Iraq. The movie by Fariborz Kamkari, a Kurd born in Iran, follows the love story between an upper class Iraqi woman and a Kurdish doctor persecuted by Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1980s. Najla, a young doctor studying at Rome University returns to Kirkuk in search of her lover, Sherko, a Kurd she has met in Italy. The Western-educated Arab woman from Baghdad clashes with the traditions of her family as she seeks to fulfil her personal dreams and ideals. The film also follows the events of the al Anfal Campaign, in which Saddam Hussein's troops used chemical weapons against Kurdish Iraqi civilians. In an interview in Rome, where the film is screening in competition at the Rome Film Festival, the director said he had wanted to share his personal experiences from his childhood and turn the painful moments into a more collective memory to help understand the Iraq of today. The focus of the film is the strong female character of Najla, who makes her own decisions and takes orders from no one. Kamkari said he had wanted to give a voice to the many strong Middle Eastern women he had met who were fighting unjust rules in their every day lives in order to bring change their societies. The director said he felt pity that these women were not seen either in the media or in cinema.