Beneath Which Rivers Flow
TITLE
Beneath Which Rivers Flow
DIRECTOR
Ali Yahya
COUNTRY
Iraq
YEAR
2025
DURATION
16′
GENRE
Documentary
Beneath Which Rivers Flow
In the marshlands of Southern Iraq, Ibrahim and his family live in solitude as strangers to the outside world, their lives tethered to the river, the reeds, and the buffalo they tend. Silent and withdrawn, Ibrahim finds comfort only in his buffalo, his sole companion. But as the rivers dry and the landscape withers, Ibrahim faces unrelenting forces threatening the only life he has ever known, and the only creature he has ever understood.
DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY - Ali Yahya
Ali Yahya is an Iraqi filmmaker. Born in 1994, he has lived and worked his entire life in Baghdad—a city where history and chaos intertwine, shaping both memory and identity. His journey into storytelling didn’t begin with cinema but with an exploration of the human mind, studying mental health and psychology to understand the silent battles we carry within. For seven years, he navigated the world of ideas as a Creative Director at one of Baghdad’s leading creative agencies. There, he discovered that storytelling isn’t just about crafting narratives; it’s about capturing fleeting moments of existence—the echoes of voices often unheard, the spaces between words, and the emotions that resist definition. Ali’s first step into filmmaking came with "Beneath Which Rivers Flow", a film born not from ambition but from curiosity—a desire to explore the fragile threads that connect humanity to nature, fear to belonging, and life to its inevitable transformations. For him, cinema is not merely a medium; it’s a vessel to question, to feel, and to exist beyond the tangible. Through his work, Ali does not seek to provide answers but to illuminate the questions that define us—the quiet struggles, the overlooked beauty, and the existential weight of simply being. To him, cinema is an invitation: to witness, to reflect, and to discover the unseen layers of both the world and ourselves.
- DirectorAli Yahya
- Screenplay Ali Yahya/ Mohammed Baz
- CinematographyAli Ameer
- Cast
- EditingAkram Sadoon
- Producer/s Jafar Sadik
- Production Company
- Distributor/sLuminalia Distributor Italy All Rights Luminalia Sales Agent Italy All Rights
- Project TitleBeneath Which Rivers Flow
- Project TypeDocumentary
- Completion Date1 January 2025
- Country of originIraq
- Country of filmingIraq
- LanguageArabic
- First-time Filmmaker Yes
- Student ProjectNo
Ali Yahya
Ali Yahya is an Iraqi filmmaker. Born in 1994, he has lived and worked his entire life in Baghdad—a city where history and chaos intertwine, shaping both memory and identity. His journey into storytelling didn’t begin with cinema but with an exploration of the human mind, studying mental health and psychology to understand the silent battles we carry within. For seven years, he navigated the world of ideas as a Creative Director at one of Baghdad’s leading creative agencies. There, he discovered that storytelling isn’t just about crafting narratives; it’s about capturing fleeting moments of existence—the echoes of voices often unheard, the spaces between words, and the emotions that resist definition. Ali’s first step into filmmaking came with "Beneath Which Rivers Flow", a film born not from ambition but from curiosity—a desire to explore the fragile threads that connect humanity to nature, fear to belonging, and life to its inevitable transformations. For him, cinema is not merely a medium; it’s a vessel to question, to feel, and to exist beyond the tangible. Through his work, Ali does not seek to provide answers but to illuminate the questions that define us—the quiet struggles, the overlooked beauty, and the existential weight of simply being. To him, cinema is an invitation: to witness, to reflect, and to discover the unseen layers of both the world and ourselves.
