Life After the Fall

True Stories presents Kasim Abid's intimate portrait of everyday life in war-ravaged Baghdad in the years following the Saddam regime. Having lived in exile for 25 years, Iraq-born Kasim returned to his home country in 2003 and spent more than four years filming his family as they struggled to adapt to the massive changes in their city and country under the US-led occupation after the fall of Saddam Hussein. This is a gripping portrayal of one family's fight to survive. With estimates suggesting up to 70% of the population is under 30, it is through the eyes of Kasim's five nieces that there comes a powerful sense of the mindset of the nation's youth. They share the same concerns of young women everywhere - studying and planning for their careers - building their lives. Articulate and outspoken, they enthusiastically participate in the country's first free elections: 'I'm voting for the secular movement,' says Zeina, 21. 'Religion is between me and God. No one has the right to force me to pray or cover my head. Coercion is no part of Islam,' she adds. But by the film's end, the cousins are bitterly disillusioned. Fatima, 22, notes: 'Whatever we do, it's really the Americans who decide everything. The government is just empty.'