I Want to Live

I would use the word "Elegant" to describe this film because it is optically a beautiful film, I wish one day it could be released on Blu-ray, the version I watched was online, not full HD quality, but still I found it very beautiful and poetic, like other users mentioned in their reviews, the film is very slow paced, it shows events, daily life and struggle of a little boy in a Refugee Camp, his life is simple, so the film is simple, the camera sees and shows what he sees and show, it capture life the ways it is, without manipulation, which is very rare to find in today's films, that is why I found it so moving and so elegant.

Be warned, much of the footage is shot on location, very realistic, not your Disney type films, it show the daily life and struggle of a little boy who is a Refugee and also sick. If the world understands what's happened over there, we might be a little more compassionate for the people who suffered through this, especially the children. There's still time left to do something, something for the children and their cries for help.

This film was shown at the Anthology Film Archives here in New York presented by Jonas Mekas himself, fore more than 1 hour and 40 minutes everyone in the theater was quite, what is great and beautiful about this film is the simplicity of it, the composition of the shot are beautiful, the camera never move, except when it is inside a car or a motorcycle, the sound is very rich, and pace is slow, the filmmaker show the films as if from the POV of a refuge in the camp seeing everything, because of that everything is presented as it is, the editing, use of Music and the voice over are simple and not intended for manipulation, just 1 hour and 40 minute in the live of a little boy who only has one wish and that is to live as the title suggest, rather a simple wish, but hard for him because he is sick and must get treatment before it is too late.

A sad but hopeful film. Sad because of the kids losing his life slowly in a refugee camps with the world ignoring him, but hopeful because the kid is full of hope, full of life and desire to life. Despite his hardship and his sickness, he is full of life.

I came upon watching this film by chance after I started my MA thesis on the Kurdish Struggle for Independent, out of the dozen documentaries that I have watched so far on the Kurdish issue and Kurdistan, this one is by far the best, especially when it comes to tacking the issue of Kurdish refugees and the Kurdish struggle in Rojava and their fight against ISIS, what I liked about the film is how simple it is; the filmmaker show everything from the perspective of the little boy, what he see and hear, we see and hear, we hear his wishes for a peaceful future, end of war, the right to study, read and write in Kurdish in school, for the Kurds to rule themselves, and unification of all four part of Kurdistan, these are in term of his political wish, but the film is not a political film, it is a about the live of a boy who is sick and wish to have a good health and get a treatment for his sickness, only this boy happen to be a Kurd, who live in a Refugee camps and cannot find this treatment. That is the richness of this film, it work on many levels and rich in term or narrative, but simple and beautiful like all works of Arts should be.