Dawn of the World

Dawn of the World is a 2008 French-German co-production written and directed by Iraqi-French filmmaker Abbas Fahdel. Set in the marshlands of southern Iraq, the war drama with romantic elements examines the damage inflicted on the region by the Iran-Iraq War, the Gulf War and the 1991 uprisings, including the ruin of a landscape sometimes identified as the site of the Garden of Eden. Part of the screenplay was inspired by the true story of a childhood friend of the director who disappeared during the war. The cast is led by Hafsia Herzi and Hiyam Abbas. Because the security situation in Iraq at the time made filming there impossible, the picture was shot in Egypt. It screened at festivals in France, South Korea, Belgium, Portugal, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere, and distribution rights were sold in close to twenty countries, among them Germany, the Netherlands, Lebanon, India and Indonesia, making it one of the most widely circulated Iraqi films worldwide.