IRKALLA: GILGAMESH’S DREAM

Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, France, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia  I 2025 I Arabic dialogue with English subtitles l 109 min

ABOUT FILM

In Irkalla: Gilgamesh’s Dream, Iraqi director Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji presents an ambitious feature film inspired by the Epic of Gilgamesh — the oldest surviving epic text in human history — reinterpreting it from within contemporary Iraqi reality. The film began its international journey with its world premiere in the Official Competition of the 77th Locarno Film Festival, one of the world’s most prestigious film festivals, before having its Arab premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival, confirming its status as one of the most significant contemporary Arab films.

The film bridges myth and reality, drawing on the concept of Irkalla — the underworld in Mesopotamian mythology — as a symbolic space to portray the lives of street children in Baghdad. Al-Daradji does not treat the myth as a distant tale, but as a living mirror reflecting questions of loss, death, and the search for immortality. These timeless themes intersect with the lives of marginalized children struggling to survive in a city burdened by violence and memory.

What distinguishes Irkalla: Gilgamesh’s Dream is its ability to merge harsh realism with poetic depth. Myth becomes a tool to understand the present rather than escape from it. The film employs a powerful visual language and compelling performances that give the children a profound human presence, avoiding sentimentality or simplification. The camera stays close to the characters, capturing the details of their daily lives, while dreams emerge as the only space of resistance in an otherwise closed world.

At the Malmö Arab Film Festival, Irkalla: Gilgamesh’s Dream offers a moving cinematic experience that intertwines myth and reality, opening a rare window onto a forgotten Iraqi childhood. The film reaffirms Arab cinema’s ability to reclaim humanity’s most ancient narratives and reinterpret them from within the present moment, through a contemporary and deeply authentic visual language.