Mustafa Mahdi is an Iraqi filmmaker working between cinematography and direction. His work moves through the parts of Iraq the news cameras left behind — the displaced families of Anbar and Mosul, the southern cities, the Yazidi girls who escaped and the ones who didn't. He has shot and directed across feature films, documentaries, short films, and television series, with credits including Mosul (Daniel Gabriel), Mosul 980, I Hate My Dad, Sunflower, and the series Sign Out and General Anesthesia. His films have been selected at the London Independent Film Festival, ARFF Berlin, the Universe Multicultural Film Festival, and others. He studied at University of Baghdad, College of Fine Arts, in Film and Television major. He works in Arabic and English, on Alexa, RED, and Blackmagic, and on stories that ask the camera to do more than watch.