Zamani baray-e masti-e asbha

Iran must have a very strong storytelling tradition, because I've seen about 7 movies from there in the last year and (with the exception of The Wind Will Carry Us), they've all been amazing. Next to the White Balloon this one was my favorite. Months after seeing it I still feel awful about complaining about traffic or any of the "problems" in my life when I think of the things a 12 year old Ayoub had to deal with (my big problem when I was 12, my mom threatening to throw my baseball cards away, doesn't quite compare...). It's so rare to see such a display of devotion, perseverance, maturity that doesn't look totally contrived. Add to that that these were all amateur actors and you end up with something from the heart that has a lot of depth. 9/10

Beautiful movie about the Kurdish people, living in the mountains separating Iran, Iraq and Turkey. Strong performances by the children in this movie. Look at Amaneh's eyes and tell me that you don't see the desperation. Another film in the tradition of Gabbeh and The Children of Heaven. Simple but poignant.

As can be determined by the almost unbelievably coarse

and heartless "reviews" of A TIME FOR DRUNKEN HORSES seen here on the IMDB's "external reviews," the

Shooting Gallery had quite a task on their hands in selling

Americans on an Iranian film about a Kurdish brother and

sister smuggling contraband on mules to pay for their crippled sibling's life-saving operation. The tony, elderly

Westwood audience I saw HORSES with seemed put out that such an unpleasant experience interrupted their usual

flow of Landmark Cinema Cultural Time-Outs; those with

stronger constitutions will be offered as compensation

images that will stay seared in your heart for the rest of your

life.

A scene in the snow, in which an extended family decides

the fate of the dwarfish younger brother, has an operatic

severity that suggests a closer approximation of the dramatic quality of the Old Testament than any movie based on the Bible. The ending is so amazingly courageous one cannot imagine a brace of dentist-investors, much less an American studio, standing

for its effrontery.

The Iranian cinema is not just reinventing the experience of

movies; it is rediscovering the moral dimension of telling

stories.

I wasn't sure where this movie was going for the first 15 minutes, but before long I was drawn into the story like the rest of the audience. This could be considered in the "Indy" film class, but whatever rough edges it might have only add to the impact of the story. Reason tells me it was fiction, but I really had the feeling we were there, or at least that one of the characters was filming the whole thing with a handicam.

The filmmaker did what he set out to do: He make a film that makes us care about some of his people. The conditions these people struggle under are appalling, and are made all the more difficult by politics. My girlfriend and I left the theatre wondering where we could find out more about these people and what can be done for them.

The young actors, especially Madi, are as good as - and perhaps better than - any $20 million Hollywood superstar. This is Film, not a Hollywood formula flick, and the story is worth seeing, however bleak it may seem at times.

This film is about the lose of childhood, a similar theme that is very common among many other Kurdish films, including Karzan Kardozi's I Want to Live (2015), and Yilmaz Gunye's The Wall (1983). These three films reflect the reality of the Kurdish people living under oppression in countries of Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey.