Flana

In this personal documentary, director Zahraa Ghandour searches Baghdad for her childhood friend Nour, who suddenly disappeared at the age of ten. At the same time, the film is a search for many forgotten girls. Her journey uncovers the dark secrets behind families abandoning their daughters and the heartbreaking separations of mothers and daughters—a fate she herself endured. The search for Nour leads her to another girl, Layla, with a similar story, giving her hope that Nour might still be alive.

Conversations with her aunt Hayat, a midwife, give greater insight in Nour’s early life, while Hayat’s personal archive and stories reveal a bygone era of stability and empowerment for women—a world Ghandour never knew, having grown up sandwiched between two devastating wars.

This contrast between Iraq’s past and present highlights the societal forces that have shaped the lives of Iraqi women. Particularly of those marginalized, forgotten, or erased—who have become a flana, a term used in Iraqi dialect for a forgotten or anonymous female.