Immortals

الخالدون

A documentary by Maja Tschumi

Milo, a strong-willed feminist, discovers the long-sought power to wander around freely in Baghdad by dressing in her brother’s clothes. Khalili, a young and ambitious filmmaker, realizes that his camera would be the strongest of all weapons. In the aftermath of the 2019 revolution, Milo and Khalili are the faces, the eyes, and the voices of an Iraqi youth that is relentlessly fighting for a better future. IMMORTALS is an insight into the hopes and broken dreams of a new generation that has known nothing but war since the U.S.-led occupation.

More about the film

Genre: Cinema Documentary
Shooting: April 2022 – April 2023
Length: 94 minutes
Language: Iraqi Arabic
Subtitles: GER, ENG, GRC
Shot in: 2K Digital / DCP

Milo

Milo is an outlaw and a feminist. She comes from a conservative family in Baghdad. Wherever she goes, she seeks friction and confrontation. She likes to provoke, but at the same time, she is empathetic and stands up for other women. She dreams of setting an example by fighting for more security and rights for women in Iraq. Milo is so brave that you would think she considered herself immortal. She wears her hair short, which is very provocative for women in Iraq and pretends to be a boy on the street. For her this disguise allows her to live a life that else would be denied to her as a woman in a conservative family.

When the „October Revolution“ breaks out in 2019, Milo is 19 years old. Secretly, she participates and masks herself to remain unrecognized. In the occupied Tahrir Square, she feels at home and safe in Iraq for the first time in her life. She decides to fight for her and her generation’s dreams without compromise. But when her family finds out about her involvement in the protests, her father locks her in for a whole year. When she eventually manages to sneak out of the house again, the political atmosphere has changed. Milo faces the difficult question of how much to sacrifice in her fight for more freedom.

Khalili

When the hope for a political upheaval arises, Khalili is ready to give his life for it. His war-torn childhood in Iraq felt worthless. For him, the „October Revolution“ is the moment to make a difference. He takes his camera and films the protests from the inside: the tent city, the fighting on the front lines, the demonstrations, himself. The camera is his voice and his activism – until he gets shot and kidnapped. He is 21 years old.

During six months, Khalili stays in the tent city erected by a young generation of Iraqis in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square. Only when the protests dissolved after violent repression killed more than 783 people did he finally return home severely traumatized and injured.

Khalili confided 70 hours of footage from his camera to the director, Maja Tschumi. He explicitly wanted to give it to a foreign independent filmmaker. Khalili’s extraordinary trust was the starting point of this film project. Many people have documented the protests, but Khalili’s footage is of exceptional cinematic and narrative quality. By filming himself, we experience through his eyes the euphoria and despair of the protests and experience him trying to raise his voice with his camera. This voice has been eventually taken from him again by extreme violence. Today, he is recovering from the traumatic experiences. More than ever, he dreams of a stable life and a happy marriage. But can he really leave his camera and his political struggle for a better life behind?

Avin

Avin is Milo’s best friend. Avin was also in Tahrir Square in 2019. She dreams of more cultural life, more opportunities for women, and a better life for her generation. Avin’s mother passed away a few years earlier, and her father allows her certain freedoms. She can leave the house during the day and work part-time. Nevertheless, her life is marked by depression and a lack of prospects, and it is only when she meets Milo that she gains new strength to stand up for herself. When Milo is increasingly confronted with the decision to leave the country, Avin is faced with the question of taking her future into her own hands.

Milo

Khalili

Avin

HELLO, I’M MAJA

I am the director of this movie. I was born in Basel in 1983 and grew up …

Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival

One day after the world premiere, I travelled to the next film premiere in the sunshine of Thessaloniki, Greece. A grumpy driver was waiting for me at the airport and had fun teasing me about my position as a privileged and state-funded filmmaker. So we talked about the Greek state crisis, inflation and austerity policies. […]

World premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival CPH:DOX

March 15, 2024: World premiere of IMMORTALS in Copenhagen! Of course, I was more than excited. All the more, when I found myself standing in front of a sold-out movie theater and answering the audience’s questions at one of the biggest documentary film festivals in the world. We received enthusiastic feedback from the audience. The […]

HEROIC TALES

It was 2019, the year of protests. In Algeria, Lebanon, Iran, Hong Kong, Chile and also in Iraq, grassroots …

FRESH TRAUMAS

The uprising was over by the time I was able to travel to Baghdad for the first time. Covid had …

“The film offers a rare cinematic glimpse into life for Iraq’s youth” Variety, March 2024

“Immortals is a dystopian film that turns into an ode to fragility, and it shows the contrasting feelings of those who allowed themselves the luxury of hoping that David might kill Goliath” Cineuropa

“From the debris of the 2019 Iraqi protests, Maja Tschumi has created a beautiful, cinematic monument for its heroes” Business Doc Europa, March 2024

“Topical story and dynamic mix of settings and moods” Documentary, March 2024

“Sensitive” Le Polyester, March 2024

“A poignant exploration of youth activism offers a rare glimpse into the lives of young Iraqis striving for a civil society amidst turmoil” BNN Breaking, March 2024

“Precise yet never repetitive” Cineuropa, March 2024

“Thoughtful” Variety, March 2024

“A moving and inspiring recount of personal bravery and the fight for freedom” Ola Salwa, Cineuropa, March 2024

“Testament to the power of film to illuminate hidden stories and inspire collective action” BNN Breaking, March 2024

“The picture of a fierce, compelling authenticity” Screen Daily, March 2024

“A scintillating balance of tension and reflection, beauty and sorrow” Nick Bradshaw, Sight & Sound, March 2024

“An insightful look into the social and political fabric of modern Iraq” Variety, March 2024

“The picture of a fierce, compelling authenticity” Screendaily, March 2024

“Although it is impossible to predict what the future holds for them, Milo and Khalili become, for the duration of a film, the protagonists of their own lives” Cineuropa, March 2024

“The freedom of finally being able to tell their own stories” Documentary, March 2024

“The film is composed of three chapters and Tschumi smartly chose the structure of a tragedy” Modern Times, March 2024