The afternoon event, held on Friday (06^th March), also featured a question and answer session with the film’s protagonist, Linda Menuhin.

Linda, an Iraqi Jew living in Israel, escaped from the oppressive regime in Baghdad after the Six-Day war but her father, a prominent lawyer, believed he was safe in the country of his birth. He disappeared, presumed killed, on the eve of the Jewish Day of Atonement in 1972 and the film follows Linda’s attempt, in collaboration with a young Iraqi journalist, to discover what happened to him.

Speaking during the Q&A, Linda said:

“The search to discover what happened to my father is an unfinished chapter of my life and, although I will probably never get closure, it has been a necessary journey. And despite everything, I still have an unbreakable bond with the people of Iraq.”

Vice Chancellor Bill Rammell opened the event, which was organised by Professor of Media Noha Mellor with Professor of Media and Criminal Justice Jon Silverman.

“Understanding the tragedies which many Arab Jewish families faced fifty years ago is crucial to understanding what is happening now to other minorities in the region, such as the Yezidis and Christians in Iraq and Syria,” said Prof Mellor, an expert on Middle Eastern culture.

Following on from talks such as that of Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Chairman of the United Nations Association in the UK, the Shadow in Baghdad event is an example of the University’s global reach.

Prof Silverman commented: “This event shows the global breadth of interests at the University and Linda remarked that the post-film discussion was the best that she had experienced at any screening of her film.”