Valley of the Wolves: Iraq (Kurtlar Vadisi Irak)

Valley of the Wolves: Iraq is a 2006 Turkish action and war film directed by Serdar Akar. Written by Raci Şaşmaz and Bahadır Özdener and produced by Pana Film, it is the big-screen adaptation of the hugely popular television series of the same name and the first cinematic installment of the franchise. Presented as the most expensive Turkish production of its era, it was shot in the Nizip district of Gaziantep.

The story draws on the real incident of 4 July 2003, in which US forces detained eleven Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq with hoods placed over their heads. After Lieutenant Süleyman Aslan, humiliated by the affair, takes his own life, intelligence officer Polat Alemdar sets out for Iraq with his team to hold the responsible American commander to account. The film also references real events of the period such as the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Starring Necati Şaşmaz alongside Billy Zane, Ghassan Massoud, Gary Busey and Bergüzar Korel, the film became one of the highest-grossing Turkish releases of 2006 while sparking intense controversy abroad.