Customer Reviews

Marooned in Iraq

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Kurdish film director Bahman Ghobadi ("A Time for Drunken Horses") gives us his second film, about three musicians, the aged father and his sons, who are going to find the father's wife who left him long time ago. The film is benefited from the beautifully shot pictures, with a clear-cut portraits of the main characters. And this is rare with films from Iran (where the director was born), but the film has enchanting ethnic music which is not to be missed.

During the time of the war between Iraq and Iran, Mirza, once very popular singer, receives sad news: his wife Hanareh, who eloped with another musician and went to Iraq years ago, is in great trouble. Mirza, living in Iran, decides to see her, but that means he must cross the border, where the snow-capped mountains prevent the access. So he summons his sons, Audeh and Barat. Barat happens to have a motorcycle, and Mirza takes no for answer even if Barat and Audeh (they are not Hanareh's sons, and think her as disgrace to the family) refuse to accompnay him.

So they start the journey to Iraq, hearing the incessant, terrifying noise of jet fighters. The film traces their travel sometimes with a comical touch, but it ultimately raises its tone to the very somber feeling at the end where Mirza comes to know what happened to Hahareh, and other thousands of the Kurdish people in Iraq.

The film is made with an agenda, which is not hidden at all, but thankfull it is free from any obvious political messages or preachy words. Anyone who are interested in the Middle East must know the sad history of the Kurdish people, and the film uses the knowledge as the backdrop against which the three convincingly made characters move. They are all flawed, often bickering to each other, but eventually overcome the obstacles set in their ways, if not the harsh reality surrounding them.

The film's great merit is its music. In fact, the three main leads are all played by the real musicians, and the film occasionally allows them (and other Kurds, who are really enjoying the sound) to play some tunes, which are fascinating. The film eloquently shows that the Kurdish people are in a way characterized by their music and the joy, which cannot be taken away even by the bombers or dictators.

The film is slow-moving, but the move is steady and skillful, with the visual flair of the director. "Marooned In Iraq" is a simple and beautiful film with its understated but clear message.

Hahareh (Iran Ghobadi) is actually played by the mother of the director.

This film gets you up close and personal with the Kurds, a people with no country of their own. It gives you a glimpse of their suffering at the hand of Saddam's regime, their hopes, dreams and the geography that they call their home. Some very funny parts too... like the scene with the young lady telling off the old guy with too many wives. The brick factory scenes constitute some particularly interesting camera work.

I saw this movie many months ago, loved it--found it a revelation--and pushed it on everyone I knew. Everyone responded to it with the same kind of instant affection. It is hilarious, moving, and unpredictable. I can't recommend it highly enough.

It is always nice to see an up-and-coming director make an obvious leap. In his first feature, A Time for Drunken Horses, Ghobadi was up to his ears in bathos. Not contented with the misery of the Kurdish condition alone, he told it through the actions of a small family of Kurds that had the extra burden of caring for a severely handicapped brother with no access to proper medical care.
In contrast to the grey tones and dourness of A Time for Drunken Horses, Marooned in Iraq is a colorful film, filled with rich character development and a plot that is more than interesting enough to keep even Western viewers who aren't particularly curious about Kurdish culture per se interested in what is going on. Adding to this achievement is his treatment of joy and humor in the context of what was a very tragic time for the Kurdish people. I think the interweaving of tragedy and laughter in this film is masterful.
Often in Iranian and Arabic films, comic characters tend to be one dimensional buffoons. In the case of Marooned in Iraq, Ghobadi has created some of the most sympathetic comic characters that I have seen in an Iranian film. They are warm, truly funny (though some of the humor doesn't really translate well), and a joy to watch develop on screen. Enjoy this film, and I can't wait to see what Ghobadi does next.

I actually liked it better than Ghobadi's later film "Turtles Can Fly" which I watched previously. "Marooned in Iraq" is a shrewd film. From the beginning, provincial humor abounds with this musician father, accompanied by his two sons, as the three stumble their way from Kurdish Iran into Kurdish Iraq. They are searching in Iraq for one of the father's former wives who has sent him an important, evidently urgent, unread message which got lost by the deliverer. Along their way into Iraq, the two sons also find room for a searching of their own needs as well. Desire, humor, lots of music, compassion, affection, idiosyncrasies, marriages, dancing, small rivalries, petty thievery--all these life affirming experiences that they encounter and participate in, propel the trio like ricocheting pinballs deeper into the non-life-affirming landscape of Saddam's tyrannized northern Iraq.

Little by little the tragedy and brutality of the world they are entering grows larger and larger all around them. It's the father's personal quest, as well as the bond of the three--especially the love of the sons for their father and the father's insistence--which keeps them together and moving forward, undaunted, keeps them from freezing from cold and fear, despite the oppressed surroundings, the bombings, the constant threats of passing jet fighters, and the difficult natural elements. On the contrary, they hardly even acknowledge with any trembling at all the oppression and the dangers around them. There is life and celebration in spite of it all, and a goal to follow, and a more secure home to return to with gifts from ravaged Kurdish Iraq.

Ghobadi, the movie maker, carries us like children on his back, entertaining us along the way, having us stop and look, stop and look, and stop and look again until we realize that it's not all a laughing matter. He puts us down and lets us empathize, and sympathize, and then picks us up again and takes us back to the imposed border, which is not really a border at all, but just some intrusive rolled wire. The whole movie is a journey to hell and back simply to pick up hope. It's an amazing work of stealthy education for us who have not seen, and have not felt, the plight of the Kurds in Saddam's Iraq. In effect, the whole journey itself, and where it ends up, and what it requires, becomes the ex-wife's urgent message.

The DVD has a short, but very illuminating interview with Ghobadi about his goals and creative technique. He is already a master filmmaker working close to his subject matter, and is clear on his intentions, and will, for sure, give us more film greats as his career continues.

Avoid MAROONED IN IRAQ! Although it delivers on the promise of music, it failed the promo in other significant ways.
When it tries for humor, the level is beneath Three Stooges. When it tries for pathos, the story is flimsy and, ultimately, unbelievable, especially the very end. While a theme of displacement echoes profoundly, it is not handled well, and certainly far from the comedic glimpse into tribal life promised.

Reprising some scenes of dangerous border crossings in the snow-covered mountains between Iran and Iraq, Bahman Ghobadi's 2002 film seems to be an extension of his first, A Time For Drunken Horses (2000). Set during the period of Saddam Hussein's ruthless attacks of the Kurdish population and preceding the US invasion of Iraq, the director here however finds the world that the Kurds live in even more strange and absurd and consequently takes the imagery to even greater, almost surreal extremes.

The story - one the Ghobadi would return to for Half Moon (2006), his marvellous feature for the Viennese New Crowned Hope initiative - is centred around the dangerous crossing of the Iran/Iraq border by an old musician looking for a woman singer. Hanareh left her husband Mirza 23 years ago for his best friend and old band member Seyed, the two of them moving to Iraq to escape the ban on women singing in public. Word has got to Mirza, a famous musician in the region, that his ex-wife is in trouble, but he cannot find the person carrying the letter she has sent and he is unsure where she is now living. With the help of his two sons, Audeh and Barat, both also musicians, Mirza undertakes a difficult journey across extreme terrain to look for Hanareh, a journey made all the more dangerous by convoys of refugees, smugglers and thieves, uprooted by the bombings and chemical weapons being unleashed upon the Kurdish population by Saddam.

There's certainly something of Emir Kusturica in the film's colorful exploits of what appear to be exaggerated characters and some explosive, music-fuelled scenes - a shoot-out at a wedding that Mirza and his sons play at, where the Mullah has been buried up to his neck in the earth is as entertainingly surreal as anything out of Kusturica - but the essential character is completely Kurdish and true to the nature of living in the region, the marvellous cinematography of a landscape of extremes only adding to the heightened situations. The use of music, along with the references to the banning of women singing, is of course the primary expression of liberty here, but question of the isolation of the Kurds is examined in many other ways, not least in the growth of technology, which doesn't seem to benefit the people here - it just becomes another tool used to oppress them. Marooned in Iraq is a wonderful heartfelt film, and Ghobadi a unique voice in cinema - you won't see filmmaking like this anywhere else.

Wellspring's DVD release is supposedly derived from a HD transfer, but by today's standards it's a little bit rough. The print shows some marks and scratches, the transfer is interlaced causing minor motion blur, but nonetheless it's a fine widescreen enhanced transfer, with strong coloration, high contrast and reasonable sharpness and detail. There are stereo and a 5.1 sound mixes. Subtitles are optional, bright yellow, but only seem to translate essential dialogue. Extras include a Trailer and a 20-minute interview with the director.

This movie brings to life the plight of the Kurdish people under Saddam Hussein's regime. The film follows the journey of a father and his two sons, who are unwillingly made to follow their father in his quest to find his long lost wife who ran away with his best friend many years ago. She was in trouble and like a gallant knight, he was going to find her and help her! In the process, we find out the real reason why the wife ran away. Often funny, but mostly sad, this movie is a window into the world we know very little. Very well acted and directed -- all the characters were believable. The director incorporated actual events into this movie. I found some scenes to be very disturbing. I was also very surprised at the role of the Muslim women in this movie. I didn't know they were allowed to be feisty! It was quite interesting to see the exchange between a young woman watching over a group of orphans and one of the sons when he complained to her that none of his seven wives had given him a son. I loved her response! Like many foreign movies, you have to see it twice to appreciate it. I definitely liked it better the second time around. It is spoken in Kurdish language with English subtitle.

Not as impressive like "A Time for Drunken Horses" or "Turtles also can fly", but still a great testimony of the life in Kurdistan.

Sure the film is about hardship in a very difficult place, wonderfully shot, and all. but the film will assault you with NON-STOP SCREAMING. I love difficult cinema but this kind of screaming-dialogue is insane! The characters scream at each other constantly. Screaming in pain, screaming for love, screaming for vengence, screaming for ice cream! The film makers would have done us a favor if they would've included a second audio track of pure high-pitched white noise.