A young Iraqi writer sets out to become a Hollywood film-maker, only to end up as a refugee on the streets of Paris, where he beds down in a metro station. Although his dream of making a film about his deaf mute father is never realised, the extraordinary encounters he has with the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Samuel Beckett and a ghost from Pere Lachaise Cemetery transform his own story into a captivating drama more compelling than anything on the big screen. -- P. [4] of cover.