Paris-based MPM Premium has acquired world sales rights to hyperrealistic drama “Irkalla: Gilgamesh’s Dream,” by Iraqi director-producer Mohamed Al-Daradji (“Son of Babylon”), ahead of the film’s world premiere at the current Locarno Film Festival .

Screening Aug. 12 in Locarno’s Piazza Grande section, the film’s next stop will be as part of the Toronto Film Festival’s Centerpiece selection in September.

The feature tells a story of loss and hope set in war-torn Baghdad’s streets in 2019, following Chum-Chum, a diabetic 9-year-old boy seeking his dead parents through a mythical gate to Irkalla in the Tigris River, while friend Moody faces militia recruitment.

“Irkalla: Gilgamesh’s Dream” teams companies from Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, France, U.K. and Saudi Arabia, being pro

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