British Council Logo UK Films Database
Project Detail

The First Movie

Synopsis

We see Iraqi kids regularly in our media. Nearly always as part of the war, its victims, its adjuncts. But what about their imaginative lives? Inspired a bit by Night of the Hunter, Northern Irish Mark Cousins went to a small village in the Kurdish North, took a projector, some great movies and 3 small cameras to give to kids. The resulting film is about war, yes, but also about not-war: We hear of a fish called Bery who lives in a magical palace, and about a cow that farts. A child combs a dove's feathers in the gloaming. We meet a boy who 'gives his dreams to the mud'.

Details

Year
2010
Type of project
Features
Running time
76 mins
Format
HDV
Director
Mark Cousins 1st Feature
Producer
Robbie Allan
Co-Producer
Trish Dolman
Executive Producer
Robbie Allan
Editor
Timotheus Langer
Screenwriter
Mark Cousins
Director of Photography
Mark Cousins
Sound
Brent Calkin
Composer
Melissa Hui
Principal cast
The Children of Gop Tapa

Genre

Scottish Children’s

Categories

Fiction Documentary

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

CONNECTfilm ltd

37 Spring Gardens
Edinburgh EH8 8HR
Scotland
UK

T+44 (0)131 661 1894

gillparry@connectfilm.co.uk

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

Suggest amendments

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

The Story of Documentary Film The Story of Documentary Film

Director: Mark Cousins

Year: 2026

Tracing the evolution of documentary film across time, examining international landmark works and hidden treasures, while revealing how the form has helped us see and make sense of our world. Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2026 - World premiere Official Selection Berlin International Film Festival 2026 - Berlinale Special Series - European premiere (episode 1) | World premiere (episodes 2-4)

History
Cinema Has Been My True Love Cinema Has Been My True Love

Director: Mark Cousins

Year: 2023

Cinema Has Been My True Love: The Work and Times of Lynda Myles In Mark Cousins’ meditative documentary, Lynda Myles, an influential connoisseur of cinema, reflects on her adventures in the film culture she helped establish. From 1973 to 1980, as the first female director of any festival, Myles transformed the Edinburgh Film Festival into a vibrant, iconoclastic mecca of discovery, championing the work of overlooked auteurs including Hitchcock, Sirk and Sam Fuller. Official selection Telluride Film Festival 2023 - World premiere

A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things

Director: Mark Cousins

Year: 2024

A creative biography of the Scottish artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. One of the most important women in British modern art, the painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham was a highly inspirational figure, whose work was deeply impacted by a pivotal event in her life. In May 1949, this leading representative of the modernist St. Ives group of artists climbed to the top of the Grindelwald glacier in Switzerland, an experience which was to transform the way she saw the world. She spent the rest of her life capturing its shapes and colours, indeed its very essence. In his essayistic portrait Cousins delves into complex themes of gender, climate change and creativity, while laying bare the artist’s character and vast imagination so pervasively that he creates the impression we are seeing the world through her eyes. Official Selection Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2024 - World premiere Official Selection Edinburgh International Film Festival 2024

Northern Irish Scottish