Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Turtles Can Fly (Bahman Ghobadi, 2004)

By: börek - January 7th, 2025  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday January 12, 2025, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: TURTLES CAN FLY * 2004 * (کیسەڵەکانیش دەفڕن, Lakposhtha hâm parvaz mikonand) * Directed by Bahman Ghobadi * 96 minutes * In Kurdish with English subtitles * doors open at 20:00 * intro & film start at 20:30.

Set in a Kurdish refugee camp near the Iraqi-Turkish border, the movie focuses on its orphans. For them life is temporary, fleeting, and always shifting. The fact that any human being is forced to live in such a volatile situation is crazy. These homeless kids makeshift everything, and life can be finished at any moment if you step on an American landmine. Many of the children who act as extras are actually real Kurdish refugees, and many of them are missing arms and legs. In other words, the issue of landmines isn’t just a narrative device for this film – it’s a reality that these people live with every day. But at the same time, bringing up facts like this doesn’t prevent the film from also achieving a kind of poetry.

This movie is so far removed from our daily lives here in the western world, that it takes on an almost surreal edge even though it’s based in a reality far away. For us a scenario like this is otherworldly, and it opens up so many questions. For example, for me, one of its interesting reflections is about the nature of communication. One of the boys in the camp seems to be a clairvoyant and can foretell mysterious prophecies that seem to come true. But then, on the other hand, we have other Kurds who are desperate to watch television thinking it will tell them what is going to happen next. Our main character, whose name is Satellite, realises that the blitzkrieg of sensationalistic information, music videos, and Fox news reports on the television are mostly a distraction and provide little to help understand the situation. Even though the lives these people live are desperate, they are at least rooted in a reality that is stripped down and understandable. Once the characters in this movie get a hold of a working television set and start flipping around all the channels, we feel like we have entered a world of total chaos.

This is a movie that brings up urgent issues, both political and on a human level. It has a strong emotional impact, but one that helps us contextualise a part of the world that we otherwise can’t comprehend. It doesn’t try to get us to take sides and any issue, but instead it is simply conjuring up a tragic situation with all its complexities.

As you have probably noticed, one of the reasons why I’m showing movies is to explore the world around us. Through movies we can see how people feel, think, and approach life in countries we will never reach. Cinema can help break down prejudices, and I always encourage people to use movies to listen to the other side of the story. Right now the entire Middle East, which was carved and divided up largely by Europeans after World War I, is now rapidly changing. To understand these changes a movie like this can shed some light. It is about a displaced Kurdish community at the Iraqi-Turkish border, and was the first movie to be made in Iraq after the American invasion and the fall of Saddam Hussein. It’s insightful and poignant, and what might shock you is that it’s an Iranian movie, and one that I feel will surprise many.

Other movies from Bahman Ghobadi screened at Joe’s Garage: https://joesgarage.nl/archives/tag/bahman-ghobadi

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

Tags: , , , ,

Kurdish movie night: Half Moon (Bahman Ghobadi, 2006)

By: börek - March 1st, 2016  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday March 20th 2016, Kurdish new wave cinema: Half Moon (2006). In Sorani Kurdish and Farsi with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. Free admission.

Half Moon (Kurdish: Nîwe Mang/Nîvê Heyvê) is a 2006 film written and directed by Iranian Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi. Half Moon is a joint production of Iran, Austria, France and Iraq. This movie was commissioned by the New Crowned Hope festival, a celebration of the 250th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and the story plot has been inspired in part by Mozart’s Requiem.

Synopsis: Mamo, an old renowned Kurdish musician, has begun a journey to Iraq with his sons to perform a concert after the fall of Saddam Hossein. Kako, a middle-aged man and a huge fan of Mamo’s, enthusiastically escorts them in an orange mini bus which he has borrowed from a friend. Mamo gathers his sons one by one from different areas. The last son who joins the team insists on speaking to Mamo in private. He explains to Mamo that the Wise man of the village has predicted that Mamo should not go on the trip because, as the full moon nears, something awful will happen to him. Mamo persists on continuing his journey. He claims that he must continue his trip despite all the obstacles because he was not allowed to perform in Iraq for many years. Mamo intends to take Hesho, a female singer who lives with 1334 other women in exile, as part of his team. But the strength of Hesho’s voice has dwindled along with her self confidence. While crossing the borders, Mamo’s team faces many difficulties as their journey is wrought with adventure and disaster each step of the way. […Lees verder]

Tags: , ,

Kurdish movie night: The Songs of My Mothers Land – Marooned in Iraq (Bahman Ghobadi, 2002)

By: börek - February 1st, 2015  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday February 15th 2015, Kurdish Iranian new wave cinema: The Songs of My Mothers Land – Marooned in Iraq. آوازهای سرزمین مادری‌ام‎ (گم‌گشتگی در عراق) by Bahman Ghobadi, 2002, 108 minutes. In Kurdish and Persian with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. Free admission.

Synopsis: In Iran and Iraq’s postwar years, when Iraq bombs its Kurdistan, an old Iranian Kurd singer, accompanied by his musician sons, start searching for his ex-wife Hanareh. Hanareh, a women singer, has gone to Kurdistan in Iraq. The film is the story of the band’s journey, joined with their music. It is the story of a nation that has always been wandering. Being so used to war, they take it as a game and with their music they celebrate life.

Many years ago before our memories were clouded by the moments of heroic bravery at the hangman’s alter which will, for many Arabs, go on to posthumously defining Saddam Hussein, there were innumerable mass graves, gassed victims, orphaned children and menacing jet fighters roaring in the Kurd skies that reminded people of what Saddam stood for.

Bahman Ghobadi’s “Songs of my motherland” (also known as ‘Marooned in Iraq’) is not just a tale of Mirza the legendary Kurd singer but an epic of his people. As Mirza sets out to seek his rebellious ex-wife, Henareh, a belle who has captured the hearts of the people through her voice and her songs, we are introduced to the nuances and shades of the people of the region.

The Kurds are as rugged as their inhospitable landscape locked between the Arab, Turkish and Iranian nationalists who are willing to forcefully suppress anyone that questions their territorial integrity with calls for a Kurdistan. Yet through the eccentric tribal mannerisms of the Kurdish people and their scant regard for authority the movie reveals the trait of natural defiance comfortably adjusted to a cruel fate that the Kurds have had. […Lees verder]

Tags: , , , ,

Kurdish movie night – A Time for Drunken Horses (Bahman Ghobadi, 2000)

By: ready - August 16th, 2014  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday August 17th 2014. Kurdish movie night: A Time for Drunken Horses by Bahman Ghobadi, 2000, 85 minutes. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

Kurdish Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi grew up during the devastating Iran-Iraq War, which killed several of his relatives. After starting out in photography, he began attracting attention in his twenties from his short documentary films about Kurdish life. After serving as Abbas Kiarostami’s assistant director on The Wind Will Carry Us (Bād Mā-ra- Khāhad Bord, 1997), he expanded the theme of one of his short documentary films, Life in Fog, to make his first feature film, A Time for Drunken Horses (Zamani Barayé Masti Asbha, 2000). The film, about the harsh circumstances of an impoverished Kurdish family near the Iran-Iraq border where the local economy subsists around the dangerous smuggling trade, was an immediate sensation and multi-award winner, including the FIPRESCI critics prize and the Camera D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Kurdish people live mostly in Kurdistan, a mountainous region of the Middle East that covers parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. For them the national boundaries that separate their people are artifacts of past political processes that excluded their participation. But paradoxically these same artificial boundaries that close off free exchange have presented a secondary, though fraught with danger, economic opportunity: smuggling. A Time for Drunken Horses tells the story of an orphaned family trying to survive in these perilous conditions. […Lees verder]

Tags: , , ,

Movie night: Half Moon (Bahman Ghobadi, 2006)

By: börek - March 1st, 2014  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday March 2nd 2014, Movie Night: Half Moon by Bahman Ghobadi (2006, 114′). With English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

Mamo, an old renowned Kurdish musician, has begun a journey to Iraq with his sons to perform a concert after the fall of Saddam Hossein. Kako, a middle-aged man and a huge fan of Mamo’s, enthusiastically escorts them in an orange mini bus which he has borrowed from a friend. Mamo gathers his sons one by one from different areas. The last son who joins the team insists on speaking to Mamo in private. He explains to Mamo that the Wise man of the village has predicted that Mamo should not go on the trip because, as the full moon nears, something awful will happen to him. Mamo persists on continuing his journey. He claims that he must continue his trip despite all the obstacles because he was not allowed to perform in Iraq for many years. Mamo intends to take Hesho, a female singer who lives with 1334 other women in exile, as part of his team. But the strength of Hesho’s voice has dwindled along with her self confidence. While crossing the borders, Mamo’s team faces many difficulties as their journey is wrought with adventure and disaster each step of the way. […Lees verder]

Tags: , , , ,

Movie night: No One Knows About Persian Cats (2009)

By: börek - June 1st, 2013  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday June 16th 2013, Movie night: No One Knows About Persian Cats -کسی از گربه‌های ایرانی خبر نداره – Directed by Bahman Ghobadi, 2009, 106 minutes. In Farsi with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

No One Knows About Persian Cats is the fifth feature by awardwinning director Bahman Ghobadi, winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at the Cannes film festival. Co—written by imprisoned Iranian—American journalist Roxana Saberi, the film is an indictment of cultural repression in Iran’s exciting underground music scene, a powerful cinematic foreshadowing of current protest movements, and a celebration of an entire generation of Iranians striving towards personal and creative freedom. Shot in secret and featuring extraordinary performances by real underground bands, follows a pair of young musicians, recently released from prison, on a mission to take their rock band to Europe. Forbidden by the authorities to play in Iran, they plan their escape abroad with a fast—talking music promoter. Vowing to play one last show before leaving Tehran, their dangerous mission takes them on a free—wheeling journey through the City’s vibrant and diverse underground scene, home to an estimated 2,000 illegal independent bands. […Lees verder]

Tags: , ,

Kurdish Iranian movie night: Turtles Can Fly (Bahman Ghobadi, 2004)

By: börek - February 1st, 2013  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday February 17th 2013, Movie night: Turtles Can Fly (Bahman Ghobadi, Kurdistan, Iran, 2004, 95 min). English subtitles. Door open at 20pm, film begins at 21:00.

A social drama concerning the life of children in Kurdistan of Iraq near the Iraqi-Turkish border before the US invasion of Iraq. Born in 1969 in Baneh, in the province of Iranian Kurdistan, Bahman Ghobadi is an internationally acclaimed Iranian Kurd director who has been living in exile for several years. A socially inclined and politically outspoken artist, Ghobadi first came to the movie world’s attention in 2000, when his “Time for Drunken Horses” won the prize for best first feature at the Cannes Film Festival. Drunken Horses was the first Kurd film in the history of Iran and also the first feature-length film in Kurdish, a tongue banned in Iranian schools since the 1940s, to achieve an international release.

This film and all subsequent made by Ghobadi (among others, “Half Moon”, 2004, and “Turtles Can Fly”, 2006) were widely praised at film festivals the world over, gathering dozens of awards, but were little or not seen in his native country, Iran. In 2009, Ghobadi completed “No One Knows About Persian Cats“- a semi- documentary about the underground indie music scene in Tehran, filmed in Iran without an official permit and in very restricted conditions. His latest film to date, “Rhino Season” (2012), was shot in Istanbul.

According to the human rights non-profit organization International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, the organization has “documented several cases of arrest or persecution of family members of Iranian political activists and journalists who themselves live outside Iran.” “In all noted cases the family members have not been implicated in any crimes and their summonses, arrests, interrogations, and intimidation have all been aimed atputting  pressure on the activists and journalists to stop their professional activities outside Iran.” On November 4, 2012, Iranian film director Behrouz Ghobadi (Bahman’s younger brother) was arrested by plainclothes forces in Iran. Amnesty International USA called Behrouz’s imprisonment “one of a series of attacks on freedom of expression by the Iranian authorities. Stifling creative expression by harassing artists and their families shows the depths of Iran’s desperate effort to cut off dialogue, much less criticism.” Ghobadi was recently released from prison in Iran, following an Amnesty-led campaign demanding his release that engaged prominent directors, actors and independent filmmakers.

Behrouz Ghobadi is the latest filmmaker to be detained by Iranian authorities. In December 2010 renowned director Jafar Panahi, who was awarded the European Union’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought has been sentenced to a six-year jail sentence and a 20-year ban on directing any films, writing screenplays, giving any form of interview with Iranian or foreign media and from leaving the country. The director was prosecuted for attempting “to commit crimes against the country’s national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic” and now lives under house arrest. Fellow director Mohammad Rasoulof was also detained, with the arrests sparking international outrage. Also in 2011, directors Naser Saffarian, Hadi Afarideh, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, and Shahnam Bazdar were held behind bars.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, warm and cozy cinema! Doors open at 20:00, film begins at 21:00, free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] squat [dot] net

Tags: , , , ,