Explorer and mountaineer, linguist and archaeologist, the Middle East expert Gertrude Bell was recruited by British military intelligence to help draw the borders of Iraq after WWI. Arguably the most powerful woman in the British Empire in her day, she was at the same time an impassioned proponent of the region’s cultural heritage and defended its right to self-determination. While fulfilling her brief, Bell tried to minimise the damage and foster cohesion, but her aspirations were thwarted by short-sighted realpolitik in the grab for oil-rich Ottoman lands.

The film uses previously undisclosed historic footage to chronicle Bell’s forays into the uncharted Arabian Desert and the inner sanctum of British colonial power. Drawing on documents from the Iraq National Library and Archive and Bell’s 1600 letters, the story is told entirely in the words of the players, providing a unique insight into both a remarkable woman and the tangled history of Iraq: a past that is directly relevant to the current crisis in the region.

“In an age of a rebooted ‘Wonder Woman,’ Bell is the real thing, intrepid, fierce and smart.” Jeffrey Fleishman, The Los Angeles Times

“She was an explorer searching for her own place in the world, but after a lifetime of straddling two cultures, she ultimately felt comfortable in neither.” lettersfrombaghdadthemovie.com.