Film

The First Movie

The First Movie is a film about imagination, about thought and memory. Filmed entirely in the small rural village of Goptapa in Kurdish northern Iraq, the film focuses on the lives of the village children - none of whom had ever seen a film - and their hopes and dreams.

After showing films on a make-shift outdoor screen, the director left cameras around the village to encourage the children to make movies of their own.

The results showed as much stories unique to Goptapa (the village was subjected to a chemical bombing attack by Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath regime during the Anfal campaign) as it did the themes common to us all: a hunger to live a life of love, the importance of imagination and the humour to be found in a camel's fart.