Katja Tähjä: Letters from a Land That Does Not Exist

Letters from a Land That Does Not Exist explores memory, identity, and the intergenerational effects of war and conflict on both individuals and nations, as seen through the experiences of a family who left Iraq.

The extended family lives around the world in diaspora, and the youngest generation has never visited their parents’ homeland. For some, Iraq is a distant and frightening place, while others long for it—or for a time that no longer exists. Iraq has undergone such vast and violent changes in recent decades that those who left at different times each left behind a different country. The family’s memories and stories form fragments that merge with personal imaginings, the surrounding society’s perspectives, and the current living environment. What emerges is a land that does not exist.