Paris-based sales company Lucky Number has released the first image of Hiam Abbass in Daughter of Eden, a London-set psychological thriller it will take to buyers at the American Film Market this week. Abbass, best known as Marcia Roy in HBO’s Succession, plays a woman suspected of ties to Saddam Hussein’s regime. Yasmin Al-Khudhairi stars as a British-Iraqi nurse whose search for answers about her parents’ fate in Iraq pulls her into the older woman’s family. The story unfolds in London in 2006. Amir El-Masry and Lindsay Duncan also appear.
The film is the feature debut of Iranian-British writer-director Fateme Ahmadi. Her short Bitter Sea earned a BIFA nomination, and Leila’s Blues screened in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. Screen International named her a 2026 Star of Tomorrow.
Lucky Number said the film builds unease and uncertainty up to its final moments. The company added that it revisits the relationship between perpetrator and victim through its characters’ psychology, probing “uncomfortable questions” about the lasting damage of trauma and political violence.
The film remains in post-production. Producers Jack Tarling and Pietro Greppi said the AFM screening of a first promo reel lets distributors see the film while they complete the finishing touches. Cameras rolled in Dublin last October. The BFI, BBC Film, Screen Ireland, Civic Studios and Three Point Capital back the project, with BFI and BBC Film also having helped develop it.
Lucky Number, founded in 2024 by Olivier Barbier, Ola Byszuk and Lenny Porte, focuses on French and international auteur films. The company has not announced territory sales or a release date for Daughter of Eden.
The film adds to a busy period for Abbass, who is set to receive an honorary European Film Academy award for achievement in world cinema. Her credits include Munich, The Visitor and the Hulu series Ramy. She also directed the 2012 feature Inheritance.
