While their location and beauty have earned the Mesopotamian Marshes the reputation of being the original Garden of Eden, the region has suffered much in recent decades. In the 1980s Iran and Iraq fought a bloody war. In the 1990s Saddam Hussein ordered much of the marshlands to be drained. Until today the marshes are surrounded by war and an expanding oil industry. The experimental film Mesopotamian Marshes shines its light on many aspects of these ancient marshlands at the border of Iraq and Iran. Fish, frogs, reed and mud are given close attention, but also a wide range of facts directly quoted from Wikipedia appear in this contrasting but mesmerizing film. "It is admirable how little you feel the need to "show" what you tell, or "tell" what you show, even while both registers mutually inform one another. This is a beautiful meditation on an incredibly fraught territory, conveyed with gravity and a strong aesthetic sensibility." Alisa Lebow, Brunel University, London