Vodka Lemon

Vodka Lemon is such a great movie by a Kurdish director living in France. The film is full of surrealism (like the horse galloping in the streets and the ending in which the piano moves by itself)and comedy! The beautiful snow covered landscape is extraordinary, the scenes during the nights are best in terms of cinematography. I think this film is Hiner Saleem's best film, after moderately nice "Long Live the Bride...Liberation of Kurdistan", in particular. It shows how Kurdish people living in Armenia influenced by the Russian and Armenian cultures, like drinking vodka-lemon all day, even at the cemetery, while mourning for the dead wife. The story is well organized and weaved, sub-plots works well (like the piano player girl, Zine, and the Avin's marriage with the weird Kurdish man). Vodka Lemon's representation of Kurdish life and culture in Armenia is proper and great I think, Saleem is opening a window that reflects the life of Kurds in Diasporas. He did it before in his first feature "Long Live the Bride..)

devrim kilic

editor in chief www.kurdishcinema.org www.kurdishcinema.com

The reality of the most miserable places of Armenia. Beautiful landscapes whose beauty is just comparable to the poverty of the people that lives there. The dismantling of the Sovietic Union left too many people to fate.

"Vodka Lemon" is basically a contemplative movie, it's so poetic and the photography is just awesome. Maybe the development of some of the characters is rather random, and those who like to see some action will probably dislike "Vodka". Some may think that in "VL" does not happen anything... but that's not true. It's just that the things that happen in this movie are so small, the people that the story is about are so insignificant... but hey, that's life.

*My rate: 7/10

Problems? You think you have problems? I'll tell you who has problems. People in Armenia have lots and lots of problems. In fact, their main activities seem to be centered around visiting a cemetery in the middle of a snowy, unforgiving landscape, which eventually will thaw only to bring on horrendous mud. There isn't much life here. Some people live with memories of when there was a Soviet Union and things were actually better. Now, they have tiny pensions and hope that their surviving family members who got away can at least send back some money. If no money comes back, people just starve. That is pretty much all that goes on in this movie. As long as you know in advance that it is about desperate people in an Arctic wasteland, and you don't expect much more, you'll like it! I actually liked this movie. I was having a bad week. My refrigerator died, then my front tooth fell out. I still have it a lot better than these Armenians do. For that reason, I feel happy and grateful, if not a bit shellshocked by the stupefying lack of plot, action and dialogue in this movie. Don't get me wrong. There are some very funny scenes in this movie. If you like Jewish or Slavic humor, for example, and you wonder why it is always so black and so bleak, you might want to see this as a kind of modern view about a place where nothing changes, ever. Things are bad, and they stay bad. And then a horseman goes galloping by. In the middle of nowhere. And we can have a cigarette and a shot of vodka, until we run out of cigarettes and the vodka concession closes. Enjoy.

Vodka Lemon is a charming, yet extremely uneven Arminian film that will delight some and bore others. Though reasonably well-crafted, the film lacks any real "zing", relying instead on many scenes that will seem commonplace to the astute art-house viewer. The film contains a handful of moments of sheer cinematic brilliance, unfortunately, they deserve a film worthy of their genius. Too dark to be a dark comedy and to light to be a serious drama, Vodka Lemon will leave many views disoriented and ultimately disgruntled. You may laugh, but these moments will be few and far between amid a sea of washed out snow filled landscapes and a seemingly endless series of bus rides. A noble effort, ultimately done in by lack of narrative cohesion.

It is believed that a successful film is recognized not only by a good story but also by the manner in which that particular good story is told.If we take these concepts into consideration and watch "Vodka Lemon",we would find that we are watching a good story which is being told in a very frank and honest manner.In "Vodka Lemon",Iraqi/Kurdish film director Hiner Saleem deftly shows the warmth of human emotions in an area full of snow.His film gives a creditable message that due to their indefatigable will to survive ordinary people can remain warm even in an extremely cold area covered with many snow capped mountains. His film bears testimony to the fact that life goes on for everybody despite various obstacles which are mostly related to money.For admirers of ancient Soviet Union,Vodka Lemon gives many hints related to the nostalgia of the old times.Some of this film's characters seem to suggest that old times were wonderful in former Soviet Union as everybody was able to lead a simple life without having to bother about food and other issues related to money.Apart from its political viewpoint which is fairly innocuous,Vodka Lemon wins viewers' hearts as it has most flavors of human emotions such as comedy,satire and tragedy. In the modern realm of world cinema there are times when talented filmmakers are discovered purely by chance.Hiner Saleem is one such discovery whose film "Vodka Lemon" won the best film prize as part of counter current section at Venice International Film Festival 2003. PS : Film critic Lalit Rao would like to thank a good friend Mr.Philippe Pham for having gifted a DVD of this film for detailed analysis.