The one thing the director did a good job at was displaying the enormousness of the area they had to cover. The many shots from the bottom of the mountains looking up display how minute they really are. However, the only thing that kept me awake during the movie was its bits of comedy. The bluntness of the father was funny, as well as the brother, who appeared to be a Middle-Eastern Napoleon Dynamite. It was also amusing how even if you're starving, you get the hookah passed to you, although I'm sure that is a cultural thing that is more serious than Americans tend to view it.
Although the comedy was the only thing that kept me awake when watching the movie, I found it to be a little offensive. Sadaam Hussein made Iraq a Hell, and the director, who obviously doesn't like Sadaam either, unintentionally makes the severity of the whole situation less serious. What was occurring during that time shouldn't be taken lightly, and it wasn't good for the overall view of Sadaam in Iraq to have people joking as much as he had them doing. You wouldn't want to see a movie about the Holocaust that had jokes in it if you want to experience the true seriousness of the entire event, so why the director didn't display the full gravity of the situation is what I don't understand.
So the reason I say the only thing that saved the movie was its bits of comedy was because the pathetic attempt to show the true seriousness of the movie failed. The director doesn't show Hanareh's face after they gassed her. The American wants to see her face, but for good reason. Everyone else sees her face, and they realize how serious it is, but we don't experience that seriousness first hand, which is hard for an American who expects to feel and see the seriousness in something like that, rather than seeing it. The only reason the director would choose not to show her face is because ex-husband didn't know, but we did, so I feel it should have been shown, because although it was probably disturbing, it was a real situation, and you can't take away what's disturbing in real life.
I wouldn't recommend this film for anyone who is an American. I think as an American you'll be disappointed with its lack of ability to connect to the viewer the way you are used to. The only people who might be able to watch it are the people who already understand what it was like to go through something like the people in the movie went through, because you won't have to be shown or told the seriousness, you'll already know.
Although the comedy was the only thing that kept me awake when watching the movie, I found it to be a little offensive. Sadaam Hussein made Iraq a Hell, and the director, who obviously doesn't like Sadaam either, unintentionally makes the severity of the whole situation less serious. What was occurring during that time shouldn't be taken lightly, and it wasn't good for the overall view of Sadaam in Iraq to have people joking as much as he had them doing. You wouldn't want to see a movie about the Holocaust that had jokes in it if you want to experience the true seriousness of the entire event, so why the director didn't display the full gravity of the situation is what I don't understand.
So the reason I say the only thing that saved the movie was its bits of comedy was because the pathetic attempt to show the true seriousness of the movie failed. The director doesn't show Hanareh's face after they gassed her. The American wants to see her face, but for good reason. Everyone else sees her face, and they realize how serious it is, but we don't experience that seriousness first hand, which is hard for an American who expects to feel and see the seriousness in something like that, rather than seeing it. The only reason the director would choose not to show her face is because ex-husband didn't know, but we did, so I feel it should have been shown, because although it was probably disturbing, it was a real situation, and you can't take away what's disturbing in real life.
I wouldn't recommend this film for anyone who is an American. I think as an American you'll be disappointed with its lack of ability to connect to the viewer the way you are used to. The only people who might be able to watch it are the people who already understand what it was like to go through something like the people in the movie went through, because you won't have to be shown or told the seriousness, you'll already know.