Niwemang

Also known as Half Moon this film is a road movie in which a number of Kurdish musicians living in Iran plan to travel to Iraqi-Kurdistan to give a concert. It starts with gathering the players of the band in a small town in Iran and then travels on by bus through the battered lands.

As expected from a road movie a number of things happens to the travelers and there is a nice balance between some mild comedy and some drama. Nothing of what happens is entirely out of touch and with that the film (or better said, the bus) rolls on with the gentle speed of a backwater river.

All in all, a pleasant but slow way to spend an evening, watching the adventures of a band of elder musicians on their way through life.

7 out of 10 faithful musicians

in this movie the story is telling the what was happened in the east of turkey, ıraq , and persia, there are a lot of kurdish people and in ıraq saddam was executed a lot of kurdish people just they talking their language . thus many of them are move to the Iran,turkey and others. so that this story is told a man whose last wish is to sing a song in the land that he was born. but it is not that easy to went there . still in this days in turkey and Iran it is forbidden to talk kurdish. so that there are many people who really want to live their culture freely. if you don't understand or feel this feeling this movie will just be an ordinary movie. but if you feel that feeling you can see that how the director made a great project

i do not speak Kurdish but the subtitle was done very good so it did not bother me. as the film started i thought it will be a easy going comedy but i was in for a surprise. this film is a cinematic master piece about the every day hardship Kurd's go thru in Iran, Iraq and Turkish border. film had a supernatural story to it i do not know the writer but this is one of the most imaginative story i have ever seen. director did a great job capturing the Kurdish land, nature and culture. i fell in love with characters film felt more like real life footage that was how good the acting was. i say this movie is a must see for every one especially for Kurdish people it will make you laugh and cry at the same time

This movie is poetry in action. It has elements of the humorous, dark, ridiculous, sublime, mysterious, evocative all rolled in. The actual events shown somehow faded from the overall sense of poetic experience at the end of the movie. The music ranges from tragic to enchanting and it's a primary component of the movie. It is shown to have powers to bring back the dead. The landscapes shown are also stunning and stark. Its almost like the natural environment is designed for expression of grief – which reflects the political situation in the region. The final product is powerful. I would like to watch more from this Director – he definitely has a keen eye for the subtle. He has intelligently showcased optimism for life with its incumbent struggles and sometimes futility.

Reviewed at its 3rd & final screening Sat. Sept 16, 2006 at the Varsity 3 cinema during the Toronto International Film Festival. The film had world premiered earlier during the fest on Sept 9 at the Isabel Bader Theatre.

This road movie with touches of dark comedy was a pleasure to see and touched the heart many times. It is story of a "Kurdish Mozart" (as imagined by the director - a fictional living legend Kurdish composer/musician with a whole orchestra of sons and daughters) and his struggle to get to a major music festival in Iraqi Kurdistan from Irani Kurdistan. It was fascinating and life-affirming.

Even as the film had several moments of desperation and despair on the way the whole thing was lightened by touches like a comedic bus driver, various moments of interaction between the father and his sometimes reluctant or rebellious sons and the resilience of a young woman named Papooli (Butterfly) who was born with the name Niwe mung (Half Moon).

Director Bahman Ghobadi was an enthusiastic show-up for the 3rd screening and gave many interesting tidbits during his Q&A such as info on the banning of female singing and musicians in present day Iran for the past 28 years, that his self-censorship on the film did not help it to get past Irani censors so that he may re-cut the film for the later general international release now anyway (restoring more scenes of female singing & playing) and that the whole 7 months of seeking for travel permits subplot in this film was a nod to the struggles he had to get his earlier "Turtles Can Fly" film made.

This film was 1 of 7 in TIFF 2006's Mozart - A New Crowned Hope series which is a sneak peek at the series before it screens at the Vienna Mozart Year Festival in December 2006.

Highly recommended and a worthy successor to the director's previous films.