Documentary “My lost country”
- Cinepolis La Reina, Av. Ossa 655, La Reina.
- Tuesday, May 28 and Wednesday, May 29 – 1:15 p.m., 8:15 p.m., 10:30 p.m..
A co-production of Chile, Costa Rica, Egypt and Iraq, “My Lost Country” explores the relationship between the director, daughter of a Chilean mother, Ishtar Yasin Gutiérrez and her father, the Iraqi theater director Mohsen Sadoon Yasin, who died in London, England , the last country in which he resided after not being able to return to Iraq due to the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, the invasion of this country and its subsequent occupation.
Based on the letters they had sent each other for years, the filmmaker tells of encounters and separations, entering her intimate world, crossed by historical and political events, including the country of origin of her mother, the Chilean dancer Elena Gutiérrez, whom Mohsen married in Baghdad, traveling together to Chile in 1968.
“I always felt like a daughter of exile, with roots in the air, experiencing in a different way the uprooting of my parents, the transmission of their own pain and the desire to find the lost home,” its director and screenwriter Ishtar Yasin explains about the film. Gutierrez.
It is the longing for an imagined, conquered country that takes us to different continents and latitudes: from the diaspora, between Arab culture, Latin America and the former Soviet Union. “My Lost Country” is an elegy to a homeland plundered by senseless violence, which is constructed as a cinematic poem and a love letter to a father.
“The role of cinema, of art, is fundamental in these dystopian times. Going to find the truth is the mission of the artist and ‘My lost country’ wants to be a bridge, created from the diaspora, that unites the Arab world with Latin America through Mohsen Yasin, a human being, artist, father; an Iraqi and nothing more,” adds the film’s producer.
“My Lost Country” had its world premiere as part of the Official Selection of the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival (IDFA) in 2022, obtaining the Outstanding Artistic Contribution Award from the Envision Competition. It also won the Jury Prize and Critics’ Prize (FIPRESCI) at the Ismailia International Film Festival (Egypt) and was a Nominated Finalist for Best Documentary by Arab Critics, Cannes Festival, 2023.
He was also a member of the Gabes Festival Official Competition, Tunisia, 2023; the Official Selection International Multicultural Film Festival, Boston, Massachusetts, 2023; the Official Selection Red Sea Documentary Film Days, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 2023; and the Official Selection SAFAR International Film Festival, United Kingdom, 2023.