FLAVORS OF IRAQ
A film by Léonard Cohen
2024, 90 minutes
2024, 90 minutes
No. 469
Documentary
Documentary
Description
French-Iraqi Feurat Alani grew up in Paris but spent his summers in his family's native Iraq, a country scarred by Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. After becoming a journalist, he returns to Iraq during the American occupation and is confronted with the silent memories of war. Today, at the ceremony paying tribute to his late father, he looks back on their personal history and that of Iraq itself.
Blending animation with documentary, director Léonard Cohen and Alani trace Iraq’s transformation from a promising nation to one shaped by dictatorship, war, and occupation. Originally told through 10,000 tweets, then adapted into a book and web series, Flavors of Iraq now expands into a strikingly personal yet historical account, capturing both the country’s beauty and its scars.
With evocative animation and archival footage, the film drifts between nostalgia and loss—the flavor of apricot ice cream but also the smell of gunpowder and the sound of bombings. It paints a moving portrait of a people’s endurance, revealing the flavors, scents, and voices that define Iraq’s past and present.
Blending animation with documentary, director Léonard Cohen and Alani trace Iraq’s transformation from a promising nation to one shaped by dictatorship, war, and occupation. Originally told through 10,000 tweets, then adapted into a book and web series, Flavors of Iraq now expands into a strikingly personal yet historical account, capturing both the country’s beauty and its scars.
With evocative animation and archival footage, the film drifts between nostalgia and loss—the flavor of apricot ice cream but also the smell of gunpowder and the sound of bombings. It paints a moving portrait of a people’s endurance, revealing the flavors, scents, and voices that define Iraq’s past and present.
Festivals
Official Selection, DOC NYC
Reviews
"One of the great discoveries at this year's DOC NYC, Flavors of Iraq makes the case as to why some docs should be animated." - Unseen Film
"Cohen’s animation is sparse and deliberately unpolished, but deeply evocative. The film succeeds because it never forgets what it is: a personal ledger, shaped by love, loss, and long memory. And perhaps its greatest achievement is that it draws you in from the first frame, not through technique or spectacle, but through its voice." - Zippy Frames
