“How did it come to this, that all our dreams of a renaissance in the Arab world and the wish for a transformation into a modern, just society were so abruptly and brutally destroyed? Is there a possibility to reconstruct this dream by building on our experiences of migration? Iraqi Odyssey shall tell this story.”  Samir

While there are no precise statistics, it is estimated that four to five million Iraqis live outside Iraq today. Award-winning filmmaker Samir was born in Baghdad and has lived in Switzerland since he was a child, while the members of his extended family are scattered all over the world—Abu Dhabi, Auckland, Sydney, Los Angeles, Buffalo, London, Paris, Zurich, and Moscow—with only a handful remaining in Iraq. Recounting his family's stories of departures and uprootings, in Iraqi Odyssey Samir also chronicles how Iraqis' dreams of building a modern and just society after their nation achieved independence in the 1950s were brutally dashed over the course of half a century.

Loosely organized in three acts, the film begins with Samir's grandfather and his role in the struggle against British colonialism. The second act traces the successive waves of emigration as his relatives sought safe havens around the globe to escape from the series of coups and counter-coups in the 1960s and 1970s that resulted in the establishment of Saddam Hussein's three-decade dictatorship over the country.

Weaving together the ironic, wistful, and witty testimonies of Samir's relatives with rare documents from private and state archives, Ottoman film footage and 3-D technology, Iraqi Odyssey is a riveting epic that creates a genuine people's history of Iraq, at once humble and majestic. Shedding a new light on a grossly misrepresented country, Iraqi Odyssey is the veteran director's most personal, ambitious, and accomplished feature to date.

"Iraqi Odyssey aims ambitiously high in its investigation of the effects of history on one large middle class family“ Deborah Young - The Hollywood Reporter

"…an inescapable, and disturbing, silent commentary on more recent unrest in the region" Jay Weissberg - VARIETY

"Shedding a new light on a grossly misrepresented country" Toronto International Film Festival

If you are interested in attending the screening or discussion, contact:

Valentina Imelli, Project Coordinator, Public Diplomacy and Cultural Affairs Valentina.Imelli@eda.admin.ch

For media inquiries and interviews, contact:

Florence Benz, Communications Coordinator, Embassy of Switzerland
Florence.Benz@eda.admin.ch / (202) 745 7908