Koutaiba Al-Janabi, is an independent film maker/photographer based between London and Baghdad.

Koutaiba was born in Baghdad, studied photography and cinematography at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest, Hungary. His photographic work was shown in several exhibitions worldwide, and he also published a book Far from Baghdad of his still images. He wrote his PhD thesis on the aesthetics of Arabic cinema. He now lives in London and Baghdad.
As a Director of Photography, he worked on various feature films, documentaries, winning prizes for his cinematography. Koutaiba is member of the Hungarian Society of Cinematographers.
He also directed and produced his own films, such as "Still Life", "Wasteland", "Baghdadi Correspondent", "Against the Light", "7 Days with Gypsies", etc. He also produced and directed television documentary series.
"Leaving Baghdad" (2010) is the first feature length film for Koutaiba as a director.
Completion of the film having been supported by the Dubai Entertainment and Media Organisation. The film won best feature prize at the 2011 Gulf Film festival.
The Hubert Bals Fund Supported the development of Koutaiba's next feature project "Night Trains", and another feature project "Window" is also in development. He is a Torino Film Lab (TFL) Alumni Meeting Participant 2016.

Source:
* www.leavingbaghdadfilm.com/about/
* www.torinofilmlab.it/people/29-koutaiba-al-janabi