"Crossing The Dust"

Synopsis

During the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, a 5-year-old Arab boy gets lost. Two Pershmega (Kurdish resistance) soldiers, Rashid and Azad, who are fighting against Saddam Hussein’s troops, find the boy wandering around in the chaos which ensued after the war. Azad, who lost his brother in the horrific Anfal campaign against the Kurds in the north, intends to take the boy back to his family. When Rashid finds out that the boy’s name is Saddam, he wants no part in it. He would rather get on with delivering food to the other soldiers and begins to torment the boy. A fierce argument starts between the two men. They take the boy everywhere but are unable find anybody who recognizes him.  

Rashid and Azad try to hand the boy over to the Americans but they refuse to take him. Even the aged mullah at the mosque doesn’t want to help. Then their car is stolen. But they find it abandoned later on. Meanwhile the boy’s parents are searching for him. The father is angry that they decided to call their son Saddam. He blames his wife for giving the boy a name which is now taboo and is determined to change it.