Director Maysoon Pachachi joined Whitechapel Gallery’s moving image curator Gareth Evans at The Garden Cinema after a special preview screening of her first narrative feature film Our River… Our Sky.

Maysoon Pachachi is a London-based filmmaker of Iraqi origin. For many years, she was a documentary and drama film editor in the UK, and since setting up her production company, Oxymoron Films, in 1994, she has made independent feature documentary films, largely shot in the Middle East and often focusing on the lives of women.

Our River… Our Sky follows the stories of a small Baghdad community trying to find some semblance of normality and hope despite unpredictable violence, turmoil, and loss. Dedicated to the youth of Iraq, Maysoon Pachachi’s film offers a glance at the realities of ordinary life in Baghdad, a stark contrast to past Western media portrayals of the 2003 US-led invasion and its catastrophic aftermath. A raw and powerful display of humanity, Pachachi’s film explores identity and nationalism, and what it means to belong.