17TH ALFILM: FLANA (OmeU)

Haunted by the disappearance of her childhood friend, Iraqi filmmaker Zahraa Ghandour returns to Baghdad, decades later, to trace a memory that never left her. This deeply personal documentary unfolds into a quiet reckoning with the lives of women erased and simply referred to as “flana”: a word used for the anonymous and the forgotten under the systemic violence shaped by patriarchy, war, and tribal law. What begins as a search for one lost friend gradually reveals a constellation of women whose resilience refuses erasure. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and continued its international festival run, including screenings at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).