Iraqi Actress Gheed On Her Debut In Atonement

Gheed — an exuberant, intelligent and very funny actress so clearly destined for international fame — has, like all the greats, jettisoned her surname. Audiences at Director’s Fortnight will get a taste of the Gheed experience when she arrives with her feature-film debut, Atonement. The first film from American director Reed Van Dyk, and based on a true story, it features Gheed as Nora, an Iraqi girl who loses her father and two brothers during a friendly-fire incident in Baghdad. Playing opposite her is Boyd Holbrook, who stars as Lou, a U.S. Marine who is later wracked with guilt and decides to reach out.

It came about by sheer good fortune, Gheed says, after a chance meeting with an Iraqi director at a film festival in Jordan. “Out of nowhere, he called me up,” she recalls. “He said, ‘There’s an American director that wants to do a film about Iraq and he’s looking for an Iraqi actress.’ I got in touch, and from then onward, I stayed in contact with Reed. I fell in love with the story. For about two years we were building workshops, doing rehearsals, and working on the character — and I even got to know the real family when we finished shooting. So that was also super-exciting for me.”

The first part of the film takes place in 2003, when a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq, ostensibly to depose the tyrannical regime of dictator Saddam Hussein.

“Honestly, I had an incredible journey within,” says Gheed. “This period of time is blocked from my memory, so I couldn’t really play the cards that I know as an actress to get to the feelings that I should reach. And I had to dig very deep in my soul to be able to open those doors again. So, it was also kind of therapeutic for me to remember, to be present in that moment as a grownup and relive it again. And it touched me deeply, because it’s a story of a million human beings, at least, because [in Iraq] we have been going through wars ever since we can remember.”

Though she broke through in an Iraqi telenovela called Heera, where she had a recurring role as a law student, Gheed will go wherever the work takes her. “Honestly, I see myself as a citizen of the world at this moment,” she says.

“I don’t have roots. I’m flying around between Iraq, Egypt, the Netherlands where my mom lives, Turkey as well. So, I’m flying around. I don’t really have a base and I’m trying to get a taste of everything from different cultures to be able to be more myself, because in this social media era, it’s easy to become a copy of a copy of a copy, just like Fight Club says. I think I’m just trying to be myself as much as possible, create something of my own. And I’m proud of where it’s taking me, so I’m putting my trust in the fates.”