The Quiet After

In The Quiet After, AL. HILAL traces the long arc between two homelands—Baghdad and North Idaho—and the river of silence that runs between them. What begins in a city shaped by war and memory unfolds into a life rebuilt in the sharp, winter light of the American Northwest.
Through scenes of exile, fatherhood, and quiet reckonings, Hilal explores what follows catastrophe: the pain of leaving, the fragile hope of arrival, and the unexpected beauty that emerges in the spaces where grief finally...