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Bahman Ghobadi’s 'Half Moon' in Istanbul International
Film Festival |
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Ghobadi’s 'Half Moon' takes cynical
approach toward Turkey 5.4.2007 |
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April 5, 2007
The Turkish military and police receive their fair
share of criticism from renowned Kurdish-Iranian
filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi's latest feature-length
movie, "Niwemang" (Half Moon), which focuses on the
tough journey of a group of musicians heading to a
concert in Kurdistan (Iraq).
The movie was presented to the press as part of the
ongoing Istanbul International Film Festival this
week ahead of its screening in festival theaters on
April 10. "Half Moon," which is among the 15 films
running in the international competition of the
festival, tells the story of an old Kurdish musician
named Mamo who sets out on a journey to Iraq with
his sons for a concert after the fall of Saddam
Hussein. During the journey, a middle-aged man who
is Mamo's follower escorts them as a driver of a
borrowed orange mini bus. Mamo gathers his sons, one
by one, from different areas. When the last son
joins the team, he tells Mamo that the village
elders have predicted that Mamo should not take the
trip because as the full moon approaches, something
awful will happen to him. However Mamo insists on
continuing his journey. Meanwhile, Mamo also intends
to secretly include into his band Hesho, a woman
singer who lives, along with 1,334 other women, in
exile. The Iranian police notice her and stop them,
so Mamo and his band decide to reach Iraq through
different routes. Their path is split for some time
after they reach the Iranian-Turkish border. When
they meet up again, they find their driver crying in
the middle of the street. A dialogue between Kako
the driver, Mamo's son Shaho, and a young girl who
joined them on the road, reads as follows:
Shaho: What are you doing here? Why are you crying? |
The famous Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi
Half Moon, Winner of the 2006 Inspiration Award at
Mountain film in Telluride, and the Award at the
2004 Maui Film Festival. |
Kako: I could not stand it. I, my camera and my
rooster were in a coffin. The car moved. Then I
heard some people speaking Turkish. Suddenly the
coffin opened and I saw four policemen coming toward
me. I don't know Turkish. The only word I know is "seni
seviyorum" [Turkish for 'I love you'] and I don't
even remember what it means. They were about to kill
me. They kicked and beat me. Look what they have
done to me! They took my jacket, my camera. They cut
my hair. One of them beheaded my rooster, saying it
had bird flu. They made a kebap out of it and ate it
before my eyes. Another one of them took Mamo's saz,
broke and burnt it.
The girl: Where are the others?
Shaho: Turkish soldiers shot my brother after we
were sent to the Iraq border with the cyclists. My
other brother took him to Iran.
The role given to Turkish soldiers and police, who
do not appear in the entire storyline of the movie,
seems a little bit merciless.
Ghobadi was in Turkey two years ago to introduce his
movie "Turtles Can Fly," which is set in a Kurdish
refugee camp on the Iraqi-Turkish border. Ghobadi,
upon questions regarding the criticism to "Turtles
Can Fly," had then told reporters that he saw a
highly politicized atmosphere in the region depicted
in the movie. He said people of the region were
always talking on "suffering, exile and massacres"
and that the two main influences on Kurdish life
were "war and politics."
Azize Tan, the director of the İstanbul Film
Festival, believes "Half Moon" is not a criticism of
the Turkish military or the police. "These people
are trying to cross into a country illegally.
Moreover, there is a man who says 'I love you' to a
policeman he sees. The film rather depicts the
senselessness of these people in a humorous tone,"
she says. "What we want is all kinds of ideas to be
debated freely in order for people to get to know
each other without prejudices."
Maybe the film's screening on April 12, to be
attended by Ghobadi, would serve as good grounds for
mutual understanding.
todayszaman com
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