Life After The Fall

When Saddam Hussein’s regime fell in 2003, director Kasim Abid’s family, along with many other Iraqi people, was ready to embrace change with open arms. They had survived the challenges of life under Saddam and looked upon a new future. But during the course of the 4 years that the director made this documentary, jubilance and hope subsided. Now crestfallen and frightened people gaze out from their rooftops over a city littered with bullets and shrapnel. Violence has encroached on their increasingly fragmented and chaotic lives. Abid’s family had managed to stay together through the difficult years of dictatorship, but, like Iraq itself, it slowly fell apart. His brother moved to Northern Iraq, his sister and her family to Syria, and tragically Ali, the youngest of the siblings was abducted and murdered. This powerful film juxtaposes everyday occurrences with significant historical events, from the first democratic elections to the capture of Saddam, and shows how one family has struggled to cope with the massive upheavals that have torn their country apart. (DOK.fest München)