Remembering The Farhud - June 1 and 2, 1941

In the 1940’s, a third of Baghdad’s population was Jewish. Within a decade nearly all of Iraq’s 150,000 Jews had fled. The Wolf of Baghdad is a graphic memoir of a lost homeland and a wordless narrative for a home never visited, with its own original soundtrack of Judeo-Arabic and Iraqi music recorded by the ground-breaking band 3yin. 

The Wolf of Baghdad is a unique audio-visual journey through a Jewish family’s memories of their lost Iraqi homeland and speaks to audiences about the little-known story of Iraqi Jews. This music based and visual narrative is illuminated by the words and portraits of Carol Isaacs own family, whose stories provide a fascinating insight into the experiences of Baghdadi Jews. 

The Wolf of Baghdad film is based on Carol Isaacs book of the same title, which was published by Myriad Editions. The Wolf of Baghdad was included in the Guardian's best graphic novels of 2020. Sandi Toksvig also described it as a book "where you actually fall inside the story. It's wonderful.' Pictured is Carol signing copies at the Manchester Jewish Museum. 

The Wolf of Baghdad film had its world premiere in New York in 2020 and it's first screening in Manchester, England, on the 4th Nov 2021. Visitors at the Manchester Jewish Museum were transported from Carol Isaacs current home in London, to her ancestral home in the old Jewish quarter of Baghdad. Audiences encountered ghost-like inhabitants and got to explore Baghdad through their memories. 

The Manchester Jewish Museum provided the ideal setting for The Wolf of Baghdad film, especially with the former synagogue having such strong ties with Manchester's Iraqi community. Opening its doors in 1874, as the first Sephardi synagogue in Manchester, Iraqi's who worshipped there included the family of the famous World War One poet Siegfried Sassoon, who came to Britain from Basra in 1858. 

The Wolf of Baghdad book and film are now available to buy from the Manchester Jewish Museum, 190 Cheetham Hill Rd, Cheetham Hill, Manchester M8 8LW. Both can be purchased online and you can also rent The Wolf of Baghdad film, and have it streamed to your home through Carol Isaacs TSM Cartoons website. 

Hussein Al-alak is the editor of Iraq Solidarity News (Al-Thawra)

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