At this year’s Cairo Intl. Film Festival, Iraqi filmmaker Zahraa Ghandour marks a notable milestone with “Flana,” a documentary centered on the lived realities of Iraqi women. After its world premiere in Toronto, the film arrived in Cairo as part of the Horizons of Arab Cinema competition, not just as a promising debut but as a rare work in Iraqi cinema, shaped by a woman living inside the country and focusing on stories too often sidelined or silenced.

Ghandour’s path to filmmaking began more than a decade ago, not in film school, but on Iraqi television. At barely 20, she began presenting and eventually directing the popular documentary show “52 Minutes,” a program she now calls her “foundation.” Week after week, she travelled across the country to report on social issues like early m

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