The disparate lives of shell-shocked soldier Ali, medical student Mehdi and bride Ahlaam — whose fiancé was kidnapped by Saddam Hussein’s forces on their wedding day — converge in a psychiatric hospital.

Shot a mere year after the fall of Saddam Hussein—during a turbulent 55-day shoot in Baghdad—Dreams is a stark and compelling look at life in post-Hussein Iraq. Filmed in a documentary style, director Mohammed al-Daradji’s film unforgettably captures those last moments of a bloody regime.