‘She Was Not Alone’ is a film about the inner, poetic world of Fatima, an inspiring and independent 60-year-old woman who has chosen to remain in Iraq’s southeastern marshlands despite facing ecological collapse. She lives alone with her beloved animals on an island enclave of reed-mat and mud-brick dwellings. This observational documentary follows Fatima for an entire year as she faces obstacles produced by prolonged seasons of drought and flooding, troubling markers of climate change in the delicate wetland ecosystem she inhabits. The film visually narrates her daily rhythms as she navigates this thick, lush waterscape populated by islands of reed, migratory birds, and buffalo herds. Her rhythms of care, stewardship, and play with her non-human kin immediately endear her to the viewer. While her community has faced countless challenges and shrunk over the past century due to military occupation, nearby oil refineries and oil flares, the draining of the marshes, and persecution, Fatima fights to hold on to her life and her buffaloes amidst the existential threat posed by climate change. But she may have to migrate to the city and lose her dearest possessions—her animals and her independence.