Mohamed Al-Daradji's SON OF BABYLON (NPP Project 2008) has been chosen as the official closing film of the 30th Netherlands Film Festival. The Dutch/English/Iraqi coproduction tells the story of a boy who, together with his grandmother, goes to search for his father who has never returned from the war. The presentation on 30 September within Utrecht's Cinema Rembrandt will mark the film's Dutch Premiere.

SON OF BABYLON

Mohamed Al-Daradji's SON OF BABYLON (NPP Project 2008) has been chosen as the official closing film of the 30th Netherlands Film Festival. The Dutch/English/Iraqi coproduction tells the story of a boy who, together with his grandmother, goes to search for his father who has never returned from the war. The presentation on 30 September within Utrecht's Cinema Rembrandt will mark the film's Dutch Premiere.

SON OF BABYLON is set in Northern Iraq, in 2003, and depicts the life of Iraqis and Kurds after the fall of Saddam's dictatorship. Made from a humanitarian perspective, the film traces the search for healing and reconciliation among those devastated by war.

Director Mohamed Al-Daradji (b. 1978) was educated in Bagdad as a director before coming to the Netherlands in 1995 to work as a cameraman. A few years later he gained an MA in cinematography from The Northern Film School (now part of Leeeds Metropolitan University) England. After making a number of short films and commercials, he directed Son of Babylon, his second feature (his first feature AHLAAM was shot in Baghdad in 2005). Son of Babylon is produced by Human Film NL and the Iraqi based company Al Rafidain.

The script for SON OF BABYLON was pitched at the 2008 Netherlands Production Platform of the Holland Film Meeting, after which a multinational co-operation was formed. The film is co-financed by the Netherlands Film Fund and the Rotterdam Media Fund.

SON OF BABYLON has been awarded many prizes, including the Amnesty Peace Prize at the Berlin Film Festival and the Netpac Award at Karlovy Vary.

The 30th Netherlands Film Festival will run 22 September to 1 October 2010.



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