Bekas - Para o Alto e Avante

Written and Directed by Kurdish director, Karzan Kader, Bekas (means parentless in Kurdish) is inspired by real life events which happened in Kurdistan region of Iraq in 1990. The movie narrates the story of two orphaned shoe-shine boys - six year old Zana (Zamand Taha) and the elder Dana (Sarwar Fazil). While the young Zana is feisty, the elder Dana, on the threshold of adolescence, is more worldly wise. After stealing a few glimpses of Superman from a hole in the wall of a movie hall, both Zana and Dana are in awe of Superman's powers. At once, they intend to go to America, where they believe Superman resides, to befriend him and live with him. They also plan to bring Superman back to their home to punish their tormentors and to resurrect their deceased parents. Zana even makes a hit-list of his tormentors topped by Saddam Hussein. They fashion their own innocent - yet, innovative - solutions to overcome the real world constraints they face like arranging passports, funds or border crossings. For their transport, they procure a donkey which sports a BMW logo on its forehead and christened by Zana as (yes.. oh yes..) Michael Jackson.

Thus unfolds a road movie which captures the eventful journey of its two young protagonists through a bleak landscape that is poised on the brink of war. In this journey, the young duo rendezvous with a bevy of varied and interesting characters representing a veritable microcosm of humanity in its myriad natures and predispositions. It is also a journey which would test and retest the resilience of their brotherly bond only to reinforce it stronger. There is also a minor sub-plot involving Dana's liking for a Helliya, a Professor's daughter.

Writer-Director Karzan Kader successfully juxtaposes the sparkling and almost immaculate innocence of his two young leads through their journey presented as a poetic pursuit of their dreams with the harsh realities of a world they inhabit which is torn by strife and poverty. In Zamand Taha (Zana) and Sarwar Fazil (Dana) who play the two brothers, he finds a set of non-actors who are complete naturals and play, nay, live their roles to perfection. They share a warm chemistry and charm their way effortlessly into our hearts. He peppers his narrative with several small characters which leave an imprint in the viewer - be it Baba Khaled (father figure), Mr. Osman (a friend of their father) or the old man they meet on the road.

Kader's movie presents his homeland as a place populated by essentially good and simple people who are roughened by the ravages of war, oppression and limited means. Cinematographer Johan Holmquist deserves a special mention for capturing the bleak landscapes with a surreal beauty.

A road movie that captures the strong bonding of love, affection and togetherness between its two young protagonists, this is also in equal parts a tale of hope, love and loyalty that is laced with delightful humour, moments of thrill, suspense, poignancy and warmth that is sure to tug at the viewers' heart.

Bekas was the opening movie at the Bangalore International Film Festival (BIFFES 2013) and has been appreciated at several international film festival festivals.

This is a story of two Iraqi brothers who were orphaned by Saddam's regime. They strive to go to America in order to find Superman.

"Bekas" may look cute in the trailer, but it is in fact a heartbreaking drama. The two young boys live in this harsh land, both geographically, politically. They have no money to live on, and are constantly bullied and even beaten up by other villagers. In order to survive, the older brother gives the younger brother a glimmer of hope by saying that they will go to America to find Superman. As the story unfolds, there is more heart wrenching incidents. What I find the saddest is the older brother's ulterior motive in what appeared to be a white lie. It is so sad that a bottle of Coca Cola is the closest they will get to experiencing the United States.

"Bekas" reminded me of Steinbeck's literary classic "Of Mice and Men" and the award winning film "No Man's Land". The plot is simple and yet engaging, touching many heart strings along the way. I hope "Bekas will get more widely seen and recognised, as it deserves to be.

The children's acting was very good. it was a sincere, fun and sad film. there were stereotypes, but there were surprises. it was definitely a movie that I liked very much.

Nowadays its a customary to take the acclaimed short movies to stretch for the feature films by the incoming directors. All they need is a good producer and the distributors, the actors can be managed with the new faces. Yep, this movie was inspired by the short film of the same name like 'Short Term 12', 'District 9' et cetera. Most importantly, these films met a great success because of the beautiful story, characters and narration.

This movie was directed by the Iraq born filmmaker who is now residing in Sweden. Most of the recent movies, in fact, all of them outlines Iraq as a war field. But this film was such a poetic, shot in the real locations, brings a calm and beautiful 90s Iraq on the screen that you have probably never seen in a decade. The main two characters were inspired by the director and his elder brother, when they were kids and lived in the Kurdish part of Iraq. But the story was marginally fictional except the dreams of the children from the third world.

I must agree, this movie practically describes how the influence of American products, films and culture affects the young kids from a country like Iraq. Their over obsession leads to dream bigger without knowing that's impossible to make it true. If you are a non-American you would have had such obsession in your childhood on soft drinks like Cola, Pepsi, or fast foods like from KFC, McDonald, or TV cartoons and Marvel Comic books et cetera. So, in some way, somewhat it's a tiny part of your story as well.

"If a family is united, they will be strong."

There is no exact one word translation for 'Bekas'. It means 'homeless orphans' according to the director's explanation during an interview at one of the film festivals. This movie is all about two young Kurdish boys, Dana and Zana, and Superman, Michael Jackson and Coca Cola. If we talk about the story, it's when 'Slumdog Millionaire' meets 'In This World'. The movie begins similar fashion to SDM where kids are playing football and after that go straight to their business, instead school. In fact many scenes resemble above two films I mentioned and also other films. When the brothers get separates, that kind of reminded me 'The Gods Must Be Crazy 2'. Thus the screenplay originality lacks, other than that it is nothing less than to consider a wonderful film.

There are some scenes that make you go edge of your seat. Grabs our attention, creating tensions and thrills in the scenes like check- post and landmines. Emotions did not strike well because it's seemed more like a dark comedy. A bit commercialised than being realistic. The music was so good, awesome blend to portray the adventures, along with the two great performances, ignited the movie to emerge as a pleasant family entertainer. There might be millions of reasons to blame this movie because of similarity with other films and other stuffs, but overall I felt happy. Criticisers still going to criticize it, despite those flaws definitely worth to check it out.

8/10

I wasn't expecting much out of this movie. Looking at the movie poster thought it's just a funny kiddie movie set in Iraq but I was wrong. It was one of the best regional movies I have ever watched. The director has done an amazing job with the direction and working with the kids. The small kid was just out of the world, he cud easily beat the best when it comes to acting. I wonder why such kids don't get an opportunity on the bigger stage. The movie is sad but very funny at the same time. I can't imagine there are still innocent kids living like that even now, matter of fact in even worser conditions. I personally wud like to forget the sadder part and keep the funny moments in my memory, not that am not concerned abt their plight. I wud like to recommend this movie to everyone. This is must watch movie.