IRAQ'S INVISIBLE BEAUTY

Latif al Ani, born in Baghdad in 1932, is known as the “father of Iraqi photography”. He photographed his homeland for 30 years, long before the multiple wars tore his country apart. His photographs, taken during Iraq’s golden age, show a country as we have rarely seen it. When Saddam Hussein came to power, Al Ani had to flee and give up photography. In 2015, his work returned to the forefront after winning a prestigious award and publishing a book. When he met the Belgian-Kurdish filmmaker Sahim Omar Kalifa at the age of 86, they travelled together through his devastated homeland in search of places he had photographed at the time. On this last trip, he shows his photos to Iraqis, who cannot believe that the Iraq in the photos really existed.