Chibayish (2022) is set in the marshlands of southern Iraq, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet in a landscape that is being gradually overtaken by oil infrastructure and industrial waste. 

The film follows Farid’s interactions with young residents as they care and call out to their water buffaloes, name community members, and navigate their threatened environment. It blends  beautifully shot documentary footage with CGI animation, and a carefully designed soundscape that combines the calls of the young men and the buffaloes’ responses to them, the sounds of water and song.

 The work vividly conveys mysterious connections that bind these inhabitants to the manifold manifestations of the living land.