01 Orphaned Kurdish children on the Iraq-Turkey border scrape by clearing landmines just before the US invasion.
6 Best Iraqi Movies to Watch
By Vlad Zakh · December 28, 2025
Iraqi and Iraqi-Kurdish cinema has been shaped almost entirely by war, and its strongest films meet that reality through children and families left to navigate the wreckage. Turtles Can Fly follows orphaned Kurdish kids clearing landmines on the Turkish border, Son of Babylon has a grandmother and grandson crossing post-war Iraq to find a missing father, and Dreams crosses a Baghdad psychiatric patient with a deserting soldier as bombs fall. Iraqi Odyssey traces a scattered family across five continents. Baghdad in My Shadow and Memories on Stone round out the list.
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02 A Kurdish grandmother and her grandson travel across post-war Iraq searching for the boy's missing father.
Directed by Mohamed Al Daradji · 1h 40m
Where to watch
Rent or buy: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube
Rent or buy: Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube
03 A young woman in a Baghdad mental institution and a deserting soldier cross paths as US bombs fall on the city.
Directed by Mohamed Al Daradji · 1h 50m
Where to watch
Stream: MUBI, MUBI Amazon Channel
04 A filmmaker traces her scattered family across five continents, all displaced by decades of Iraqi upheaval.
Directed by Samir Jamal Al Din · 2h 42m
Where to watch
Rent or buy: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store
Rent or buy: Apple TV Store, Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, YouTube
Rent or buy: Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Amazon Video
05 Iraqi exiles building new lives in London find their pasts impossible to leave behind.
Directed by Samir Jamal Al Din · 1h 45m
06 Two Kurdish filmmakers scrape together funding to make Iraq's first film about the Anfal genocide.
Directed by Shawkat Amin Korki · 1h 37m
Streaming availability data from JustWatch, via TMDB. Availability changes often, so check the service before you plan a movie night.
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