Straddling Iraq's life-giving Tigris and Euphrates rivers are the Hammar Marshes, an ancient Mesopotamian wetland where floating communities have lived for centuries. In recent years, the region has attracted visitors who come to marvel at the Madan’s, or Marsh Arabs, way of life; this aquatic community is famous for their ability to majestically navigate reed-covered waterways in hand-made canoes—all the while singing the songs of their forefathers across the delta. 

Filmmaker Ivan Olita takes us on a tour of this hidden kingdom led by Abu Haider, one of the few Madan committed to living a traditional way of life in Iraq’s flatlands. “This film is about identity,” says Olita. “Not just the internal identity shaped by the way we define ourselves and our values, but the external—the broader identity one has as part of a community, country and collective shared experience.”

Haider’s way of life has been under threat since the nineties when the marshes were drained as part of Sadam Hussein’s fettered attempts to smoke out Shia rebels. This had catastrophic consequences on the area and reduced a once-luscious paradise into a barren salt desert. Without drinking water, reeds to build homes, or a steady supply of fish and birds for food, the Madan were forced to give up their ancient homeland and exiled to refugee camps in bordering Iran and local towns. 

“The marshes are a fundamental part of their identity, permeating both the material and spiritual,” says Olita. “To lose that makes it impossible to hold on to their history and traditions. At one time Haider’s singing was a connection to his community, but now it’s a connection to the past.”

After numerous grabs for power and eruptions of war, a wave of religious conservatism has swept across the Middle East, encouraging Muslim communities to live a more orthodox way of life, which includes restrictions on singing, dancing and playing musical instruments in public. For the singing Marsh Arabs, this is an irreconcilable conflict between culture and tradition. 

“If the only way to keep the legacy of singing in the marshes alive is to personally become a tourist attraction, then so be it,” says Olita. “Haider heroically accepts that his social identity will bear the consequences of choosing to preserve the nature of his calling.”