Couch cinema tip: BAGHDAD IN MY SHADOW and ROGUE TRADER

For those staying comfortably at home, Samir's BAGHDAD IN MY SHADOW (53rd International Hof Film Festival) is available in the 3sat Mediathek until 14 March 2023.

With his debut film FILOU, Samir was for the first time at the Hof International Film Festival in 1998. In 2019, the festival dedicated a retrospective to the Iraqi-Swiss director, producer, writer, editor, cinematographer and actor. At the same time, Samir presented his latest film BAGHDAD IN MY SHADOW around the London café "Abu Nawas".

The café is a popular meeting place for Iraqis in exile. There, a failed writer, a wife in hiding and a gay IT illegal worker meet a fanatically religious youth, the writer's nephew. Incited by the radical Islamist preacher of a backyard mosque, the nephew turns on his uncle and a dramatic showdown ensues. Thrilling to the last second and frighteningly topical.

In addition, ROGUE TRADER (55th Hof International Film Festival) by David Preute can be seen in the ARD Mediathek for another 2 weeks until 26 February 2023. The thriller is based on true events.

Ambitious investment banker Tom Walker is catapulted from the rather monotonous daily routine in the back office of a bank onto its hectic trading floor, where from one moment to the next he is responsible for the most complex and important portfolio of the ailing financial institution. Through a chain of unfortunate decisions, he becomes one of the biggest rogue traders in the world.