Iraq, 1988. Forced to join Saddam Hussein’s army, Ako, a young Kurd, dreams of fleeing the country. Sent away to the frontline of the Iran-Iraq War, he receives orders to escort the return of a fellow soldier’s corpse to his family—but his driver turns out to be an anti-Kurd Arab.

The first Iraqi film to compete in Cannes, Hiner Saleem’s off-beat road movie reinvents the beloved genre with panache. Speeding through the picturesque terrains of Kurdistan, Kilomètre zéro grapples with bumpy geopolitical conflicts through a delicate mix of absurdist humor and slapstick comedy.