Northern Iraq in the late 1980s and the Iraqi Ba'athist regime is engaged in the Al-Anfal campaign to exterminate Kurdish insurgents . Mirza a Kurdish musician searches for his wife amongst the horror and chaos of war
After seeing THE WIND WILL CARRY US by Abbas Kiarostami I decided to search out a few other films produced in Iran featuring the Kurds. I'm rather sure this one qualifies as being part of the Iranian New Wave even though as with the aforementioned Kiarostami the subject characters are Kurds and not Iranians
One thing this film does do much better than THE WIND WILL CARRY US does give a national identity to a people who have no nation. Director Bahman Ghobadi is a Kurd unlike Kiarostami so has no problem trying to elicit sympathy from the audience, Considering that in the 1980s both innocent Kurdish civilians and Iranian combatants suffered from the chemical weapons used by the Iraqi Ba'athist regime Ghobadi doesn't have to worry too much about Iranian censorship laws and can make the film he wants
The downside is that my impression of Iranian New Wave cinema seems to be composed of characters travelling along a mountain road and not much else but will familiarise myself with the sub-genre before commentating too much . I will say I take it this is a comedy but I didn't think it was all that funny . Indeed the actor playing Mirza reminded me of Jackie Wright of THE BENNY HILL SHOW fame while one of his sons resembled one of the Scousers from HARRY ENDFIELD AND CHUMS. Benny Hill ? Harry Endfield ? You should expect a fair amount of laughs in that case. Worse considering the narrative mutates in to serious , downbeat territory towards the end the contrast isn't as powerful as it should but I guess humour is always subjective while we always know genocide when we see it
After seeing THE WIND WILL CARRY US by Abbas Kiarostami I decided to search out a few other films produced in Iran featuring the Kurds. I'm rather sure this one qualifies as being part of the Iranian New Wave even though as with the aforementioned Kiarostami the subject characters are Kurds and not Iranians
One thing this film does do much better than THE WIND WILL CARRY US does give a national identity to a people who have no nation. Director Bahman Ghobadi is a Kurd unlike Kiarostami so has no problem trying to elicit sympathy from the audience, Considering that in the 1980s both innocent Kurdish civilians and Iranian combatants suffered from the chemical weapons used by the Iraqi Ba'athist regime Ghobadi doesn't have to worry too much about Iranian censorship laws and can make the film he wants
The downside is that my impression of Iranian New Wave cinema seems to be composed of characters travelling along a mountain road and not much else but will familiarise myself with the sub-genre before commentating too much . I will say I take it this is a comedy but I didn't think it was all that funny . Indeed the actor playing Mirza reminded me of Jackie Wright of THE BENNY HILL SHOW fame while one of his sons resembled one of the Scousers from HARRY ENDFIELD AND CHUMS. Benny Hill ? Harry Endfield ? You should expect a fair amount of laughs in that case. Worse considering the narrative mutates in to serious , downbeat territory towards the end the contrast isn't as powerful as it should but I guess humour is always subjective while we always know genocide when we see it