Les chansons du pays de ma mère

Marooned in Iraq is a story about a Kurdish father named Mirza and his two sons living in Iran who embark on a quest to find Mirza's former wife who is the one marooned in Iraq. Straight from a modern soap opera, she left Mirza for hist best friend and broke up their band in the process. Something has happened and she has sent for Mirza to help her.

The story occurs during Saddam Hussein's brutal attacks on the Kurds. During the three men's quest, there is the constant reminder of Saddam's hostility by the sounds of bombers flying overhead and a scene of a mass grave filled with massacred Kurdish men. The director is evidently making his commentary on the inhumanity shown by the ruthless dictator.

Another political statement being made by the director is on the issue of political boundaries being placed on a historically nomadic people. The Kurds have occupied what they call Kurdistan for thousands of years in the area now politically divided between the countries of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. During a scene late in the film, Mirza simply steps on the border between Iraq and Iran as he crosses over showing that to the nomadic Kurds, they heed no boundaries.

The director does a great job of using the terrain in the backdrops of each scene making you feel like you are there. Although the film is subtitled, not every word is translated; however, you get enough to understand the conversation. The film was quite educational on the life of the Kurds and what they went through under Saddam Hussein's regime.

I would recommend this film to anyone interested in the middle east, specifically the Kurds. If you don't like foreign/subtitled film, this movie is not for you. Overall, I enjoyed this film and felt it quite educational.

I went to see this at a festival as a good-for-you topical film - kind of like eating brussels sprouts or something (apologies to those for whom brussels sprouts are a particular favorite). The filmmaker is an Iranian Kurd, and the film involves a journey from Iranian Kurdistan into Iraq.

Much to my surprise, it inspires a fair amount of laughter even in the context of extreme difficulties: a tent refugee camp for orphans in knee-deep mountain snow; voices and faces (never shown, but instead hidden in shame) disfigured by chemical weapons attacks and so on. These are present simply as part of the story's background, rather than like the shrill preachiness more typically seen on U.S. television news reports. Though I suppose one can't really fault journalists for being intensely serious when reporting on that part of the world.

The story is slim: someone is looking for something. They don't find it (her actually), but find other things which turn out to be of value. The man and his two (grown) sons have a larger-than-life bluster and recurring pratfalls which are a bit reminiscent of the Three Stooges. Laughter is good medicine, and these people have certainly earned the right to a heavy dose thereof. One example of the silliness: Our three travelers have their motorbike, clothes and musical instruments stolen by highway bandits disguised as police. Later, they get a ride on a truck and encounter two guys running through the snow in pastel-colored long undies and handcuffed together. They turn up a few times, always claiming to be cops but no one believes them, and they can't get any help.

Overall, an unexpected pleasure. Worth seeing.

Marooned in Iraq[First-viewing, cinema at San Francisco Film Festival, Kabuki Theatre in the city)(Bahman Ghobadi)- Shahab Ebrahimi, Faegh Mohammadi, Allah-Morad Rashtian

Ghobadi's follow-up to the brilliant, `A Time for the Drunken Horses', is just as stunning both visually and thematically. The cinematography in this film was absolutely marvelous judging by the difficulty it requires in such climates and places and the result which came of it (also one must take into account the low-budget of films in Iran). It's a story of Mirza (Ebrahimi) and his two sons (Mohammadi and Rashtian) journeying in the Kurd-populated province, Kurdistan, in Iran, and eventually into Kurd-populated part of Iraq (across the border). Mirza is looking for his ex-wife, Hanareh. Mirza is also a master musician in Kurdistan and his sons are musicians as well. This film starts out pretty funny actually in the first act, and one gets the sense of a more mature three stooges type film in a very tough atmosphere. However the film gets much stronger in its second and especially third act, as the story is sadenning, powerful and makes some very good points. Although the director was trying to make many points, and I'm not sure if he managed to convey all of them well, he raised some great issues about the society and personal lives of people and especially women. The film also had a beautiful score, provided by Iranian-Kurdish musician, Arsalan Kamkar. Although I preferred, `A time for the Drunken Horses' as it was the deepest and saddest Iranian film I have seen in the past couple of years and makes it point much clearer than this film, Marooned in Iraq is also a very good film which I recommend to any fan of international cinema. 9/10

I've seen films in DOZENS of different languages...To the best of my recollection; MAROONED IN IRAQ is the first film I have ever seen in Kurdish! What an interesting window into Kurdish culture, recent history, music and traditions director Bahman Ghobadi has provided us!

"...If I leave town, what will happen to my 7 wives and 11 daughters?" says son Audeh to father Mirza. With those words it really doesn't take much for the viewer to figure out why Audeh keeps taking on more wives, does it?

MAROONED begins with a claim that The Kurds, numbering about 30 million and forming sizable ethnic minorities in several different countries, are the largest ethnic group in the world without a country of their own. However, I was unable to confirm this claim.

Please be patient with MAROONED. About 15 or 20 minutes in, I said to myself, "If this doesn't flag my interest soon, it isn't going to!" Soon after, I was mesmerized! This film evoked just about every human emotion imaginable. About 3/4 of the way through, I touched my cheek, and to my immense chagrin, I found I had teared up, but yet, I still can't put my finger on why! 10 minutes later a scene in MAROONED proved that on-screen hysterical grief can be contagious! Watching and learning about these Western Asian traditionally nomadic people fascinated me. How they maintain perspective and their sense of humor despite having been the object of genocidal efforts from Sadam Hussein is absolutely inspirational!

Director Ghobadi has a penchant for pulling the rug out from under the viewer's feet. One moment the father and two sons family are doing a Three Stooges out-take, and the next moment are mourning the death of a friend; Are performing some music in public that's reminiscent of the Bar scene from Star-Wars, and a moment later they're staring genocide in the face. Ghobadi manages these rapid-fire transitions magnificently...KUDOS!

8.25/10*

Family, laughter, music and unlikely endings, "Marooned in Iraq" is a fill that offers a much different point of view of the Middle East than most American's are accustomed to. This story of a father and his two son's search for happiness by leaving their homes in Iran to cross the border into war torn Iraq shows a more humanistic view of the effects of war. Each man is searching for something to fulfill their lives amidst the great turmoil.

The film really focused on how small people are by themselves and how they really have no control over what happens. He often showed scenes where the characters were traveling alone along broad backdrops of huge landscapes. The director really seemed to want to get the point across that these men might be together, but they were such a small part of this enormous world.

It was surprising how light-hearted some of the film was. For instance, the time spent with the orphans was not a dark gloomy time, but a time of music, dancing and happiness. At the same time, the sound of actual jets brought the viewer back to the reality that all of these children had lost their families because of this brutal war.

From the view of an American, this movie was extremely interesting. Sometimes I think we would like to think that war in the Middle East does not affect many, because many of us are not directly affected, but this film shows the other side. People who are interested in seeing the other side of this Middle Eastern conflict should watch this movie and witness the hardship these people must live through on a daily basis.