Every year millions of Shiite Muslims walk hundreds of miles along the desert road to Karbala during the pilgrimage of Arbaeen, one of the largest religious gatherings in the world. The pilgrimage, which takes place at the end of the 40-day mourning period following Ashura, commemorates the martyrdom of Imam Hüseyin in the 7th century. In this award-winning docu-drama, we follow 9-year-old mute Ali as he participates in this pilgrimage, accompanied by his teenage brother and his favourite sheep, Kirmeta. Ali’s intention is to sacrifice Kirmeta for his father, who had left home to fight ISIS, but never returned. Written and directed by Maythem Ridha, whose personal experiences growing up in Iraq played a role in guiding the story, Ali and His Miracle Sheep had its World Premiere at the 2021 Sheffield Doc Fest, where it won Best Film in the UK Competition. The jury described the film as “intensely cinematic and lyrical… strikingly confident in both its embrace of formal hybridity and tonal ambiguity, the film shifts delicately from moment to moment in a flow of imagery that is at once beautiful, absurd and utterly heartbreaking.”