Flavors of Iraq

French-Iraqi Feurat Alani grew up in Paris but spent his summers in his family’s native Iraq, a country scarred by Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. After becoming a journalist, he returns to Iraq during the American occupation and is confronted with the silent memories of war. Today, at the ceremony paying tribute to his late father, he looks back on their personal history and that of Iraq itself.

Blending animation with documentary, director Léonard Cohen and Alani trace Iraq’s transformation from a promising nation to one shaped by dictatorship, war, and occupation. Originally told through 10,000 tweets, then adapted into a book and web series, Flavors of Iraq now expands into a strikingly personal yet historical account, capturing both the country’s beauty and its scars.

With evocative animation and archival footage, the film drifts between nostalgia and loss—the flavor of apricot ice cream but also the smell of gunpowder and the sound of bombings. It paints a moving portrait of a people’s endurance, revealing the flavors, scents, and voices that define Iraq’s past and present.