been produced and released in Iraq. The first theater in Iraq opened its doors before 1920. Post-independence period, more cinemas began to appear. A milestone was achieved in 1957 when 137 cinemas were established with a total capacity of 70,000 seats. After 1940, studios slowly began to appear in Iraq where Iraqi-made films would be produced. One of the first studios in Iraq was opened in 1946 by the wealthy Sawda’i family in Baghdad. Studio Baghdad relied on specialists from Europe and Egypt to function. Its first movie, ‘Aliya wa ‘Isam, was recorded by the French director André Shatan, and released in 1948. In 1951, the Sawda’i family moved to Israel. For the next three years, various Iraqi’s from abroad took over control until it was sold to Iraqi’s who lived abroad in 1954. The studio still made movies for the next 12 years, until it was sold to the Coca-Cola Company in 1966, who wanted to turn the land and buildings into a new factory. The government of Iraq established a department of cinema in 1959, which only produced a couple documentaries and two films per year. During the reign of Saddam Hussein from 1979 to 2003, the cinema industry in Iraq was mainly filled with pro-Baathist propaganda. Until 1991, Iraq was home to 275 cinemas across the nation, even though during the era of Saddam Hussein many theaters were slowly closed down. When the First Gulf War began, film-making equipment and celluloids were banned from entering the country because of an international embargo put on Iraq. Post-invasion of Iraq In 2003, film production in Iraq halted because of the U.S. invasion. In the same year, the National Film Archives in Iraq was bombed by the U.S. army and almost all of its celluloid collection was wiped away. Following from this, the Iraqi Independent Film Centre (IIFC) became active, which was formally established in 2009 by founder Mohammed Al-Daradji. It was the first Iraqi organization of its kind where cultural preservation of the movie industry was its objective. In 2014, the Al-Nahj festival was founded, a film festival which was focused on short films and documentaries. In 2017, the first Iraqi-made film was released after 27 years in Baghdad. The Journey is a psychological thriller film directed by Mohammed Al-Daradji with Zahraa Ghandour in the leading role. Notable people in Iraqi cinema Iran Abbas Kiarostami - Director Parviz Shahbazi