By Joyce Kelly/Daily News Staff

It is a classic story, set in modern times in an ancient city, and it’s being filmed right here at the Danforth Museum and Tripp Street.

It’s a story Raouf Zaki said he must tell.

“Santa Claus in Baghdad,” based on Newton writer Elsa Marston’s book, “Figs and Fate,” is a 28-minute “feel good drama” about things coming full circle. Zaki calls it his biggest film yet.

“I picked up the book at the Wayland Library – I read it, and I jumped up and down and I cried and said, ‘I’m going to make this a movie,”‘ said Zaki.

A Boston University graduate, Zaki was honored last year for his comedy film, “Just Your Average Arab,” starring Ahmed Ahmed, who is now featured on Comedy Central.

“This film is much more serious than the last. … It’s about two beautiful children growing up during the embargo days in Iraq, when they had no medicine whatsoever, and everything else had to be sold.

“It’s about a gift that goes around full circle … a gift going from being material to being something of value,” similar to “The Gift of the Magi,” Zaki said.

In the film, a teacher reads an American story of Santa Claus and his eight reindeer, and 7-year-old Balil becomes enthralled waiting for “Santy” to arrive with gifts.

No one can convince Balil otherwise.

Balil’s sympathetic older sister, 16-year-old Amal, played by Iraqi-American Tamara Dhia of New York City, allows him to believe Uncle Omar, returning home after 10 years, is his treasured “Santy Claus.” When Uncle Omar arrives, Bilal sits on the edge of his seat as still as a statue, watching “Santy” take out items one by one from a suitcase: all coveted medicines he smuggled into the country.

As the adults look over their long-awaited allergy pills, arthritis creme, antibiotics and cough syrup, Balil holds his breath to see the one gift he’s been dreaming of since his teacher’s story: a red toy car.

But when the suitcase is finally empty and there is no toy in sight, Balil throws himself to the ground, crying hysterically, traumatized that Santy has come with no toys.

Heart-broken and ashamed, his father decides to pawn one of the family’s few possessions left over from selling their furniture and household goods for food in order to buy the toy.

His father gives up his own precious book, passed on from his father and buys Balil a red toy car.

Balil treasures the car as a sacred object, takes it with him everywhere and finds endless ways to play with it.

In sacrificing for another’s joy, the characters find sustenance, love, beauty and purpose amid the run-down schools, rubble, blown-up buildings, empty homes and barren kitchens.

“People sold everything they had during Saddam’s rule, during the embargo … Half a million children died during the Clinton administration years – it was a huge loss for Iraqi citizens and a huge miscalculation on the part of our government,” Zaki said.

The traumatic circumstances of film’s characters are the direct result of political choices, but the film is not political, Zaki said.

“I want to show American teenagers that Iraqi teenagers and kids are just like them – they have the same hopes, dreams and aspirations,” Zaki said. Zaki also wants the film shown at schools, particularly middle schools, so students can discuss the commonalities between the cultures.

Harvard University has offered to create a curriculum for schools to create a lesson around the film, and Executive Director Robert Kaufman of the McAuliffe Regional Charter School in Framingham wants to bring the film to students there, Zaki said.

On a tight $35,000 budget, Zaki started filming “Santa” at the Danforth Museum yesterday with a cast of about 40 Middle Eastern actors and producers passionate about the film from all over the country.

“The work is daunting, but we’re pushing ahead. We both have such an emotional stake in the outcome of this,” said production designer John El Manahi, taking a 30-second break from re-creating a Baghdad book market, blown up months ago, in an old building on Tripp Street.

Zaki and his team still need help and are at the mercy of the public’s generosity to complete the film.

El Manahi needs scene painters. Zaki is asking business owners to donate breakfast during filming.

Zaki is also seeking 100 men, women and children who look Arabic or have dark complexions to play extras in a scene at the Baghdad book market on June 30 and July 1.

“They can be Jewish, Italian, Russian … I’m so desperate for people, I’m going to call the FBI,” Zaki joked.

“It’s important, it’s a huge story. People will feel good about doing this, because they’ll contribute to educating children about Iraq in a positive light instead of images they see on TV everyday and show them people from this part of the world are just like them.

“Ignorance is the biggest battle right now,” Zaki said.