Kings of Babel Wins The Whickers MENA Bursary 2026
The Iraqi-UK documentary project Kings of Babel has been named the winner of The Whickers MENA Bursary 2026, securing £3,000 in seed funding to support the film’s development.
Directed by Alex King, Qudoos Al-Maksoosi and Mouse Green, Kings of Babel was selected unanimously from a shortlist of six projects submitted by first-time filmmakers from across the Middle East and North Africa.
The shortlisted projects were:
- 10 Things I Hate About My Cousin by Niniko Lekishvili
- 14.5 Km Away From Our Dreams by Lilit Mkhitaryan
- Dance with Me by Leila Basma
- House No. 7 by Rama Abdi
- Street Poets by Shadi Tabibzad
- The Lost Oasis by Syrine Thamine and Alexander Armstrong-Holding
Kings of Babel offers an unprecedented look inside Iraq’s youth motorbike gangs, following young people who use motorbikes, social media and the country’s underground stunt scene as forms of self-expression in a society where their choices can provoke fierce social and official backlash.
The film centres on Tafliq, a youth subculture built around motorbike stunts, particularly wheelies performed on inexpensive Iranian motorbikes. The phenomenon has flourished across Shia-majority areas of Iraq, developing its own fashions, codes and distinct communities while attracting huge crowds to illegal stunt meets held across the country. But behind the death-defying stunts, online celebrity and ecstatic crowds is a more complicated story of frustrated ambition, collective grief and intergenerational trauma.
The filmmakers said documenting the scene while protecting their characters has presented significant challenges.
“Documenting Iraq’s most controversial subculture, while keeping our characters safe, has been particularly challenging. Conflict and destabilisation in Iraq due to the US and Israel’s attacks on Iran have severely disrupted our plans this year. But support from the Whickers MENA Bursary has been pivotal in allowing us to complete our final shoot and bring our characters’ narratives to completion.”
Through intimate, observational filmmaking, Kings of Babel explores the lives and aspirations of a generation of young Iraqis navigating social restrictions, political instability and the legacy of conflict.
There is also a special mention for the project The Lost Oasis by Syrine Thamine and Alexander Armstrong-Holding. This film is the untold story of a human disaster unfolding in Gabès, Tunisia. A Tunisian expat returns home to stand alongside those forced to live, resist, and survive on poisoned land.
The Whickers founder and trustee Valerie Kleeman said of the projects “The Lost Oasis and The Kings Of Babel are both excellent projects ….if I have to choose, and I know we must, I lean towards the Iraqi stunt bikers as here is a freshness and energy that we seldom see”.
The Whickers’ MENA Bursary will enable the filmmakers to complete their final stage of filming and bring their characters’ stories to the screen.