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Movies / On DVD / Half Moon: A Musician's Last Journey
Half Moon: A Musician's Last Journey

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Half Moon: A Musician's Last Journey (2007)

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Reviews Counted:23

Fresh:23

Rotten:0

Average Rating:7.4/10

Consensus: Bahman Ghobadi’s Half Moon is a beautiful and often humorous look into the lives of Kurdish wanderers.

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Theatrical Release:Dec 14, 2007 Limited

Synopsis: HALF MOON is the moving and beautiful new film from Kurdish director Ghobadi (A Time for Drunken Horses, Turtles Can Fly). Mamo, an iconic Kurdish musician in the twilight of his life and failing... HALF MOON is the moving and beautiful new film from Kurdish director Ghobadi (A Time for Drunken Horses, Turtles Can Fly). Mamo, an iconic Kurdish musician in the twilight of his life and failing health, must lead a dozen of his sons to Iraq for a concert - "a cry of freedom" - to celebrate the fall of Saddam Hussein and the end of his repression of Kurdish music. Their plan is to drive across the border between Iranian and Iraqi Kurdistan, but the road will be long and winding and the local wise man has predicted calamity. On their quest, the men will encounter the most sublime visions alongside the most horrendous brutality - primarily meted out by border guards. But first they must pick up Hesho, Mamo's exiled singer and muse. The "celestial voice" she represents takes on a divine, transformative power, and Mamo is left in a state of grace no one could ever have anticipated. -- © Official Site [More]

Starring: Ismail Ghaffari, Allah Morad Rashtiani, Hedye Tehrani, Hassan Poorshirazi

Starring: Ismail Ghaffari, Allah Morad Rashtiani, Hedye Tehrani, Hassan Poorshirazi, Golshifteh Farahani, Sadiq Behzadpoor

Director: Bahman Ghobadi

Director: Bahman Ghobadi
Screenwriter: Bahman Ghobadi
Producer: Bahman Ghobadi
Composer: Hossein Alizadeh
Studio: Strand Releasing

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Release:

Mar 4, 2008

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Reviews for Half Moon: A Musician's Last Journey

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This is a road movie unlike any other...

Full Review Source: Wall Street Journal | comment Comment
01/04/08
Joe Morgenstern
Joe Morgenstern
Wall Street Journal
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The film, equipped with a sense of humour as well as a certain kind of Middle Eastern magic realism, has a central theme that emphasises the fate of a whole people without a country to call their own.

Full Review Source: This is London | comment Comment
01/04/08
Derek Malcolm
Derek Malcolm
This is London

Honours and elevates the unquenchable spirit of its subjects.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment Comment
01/04/08
Sukhdev Sandhu
Sukhdev Sandhu
Independent

I am a little unsure that the themes, images and ideas in all this come together as satisfactorily as they should, but it is a serious and worthwhile piece of work from a director with a real cinematic language.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
01/04/08
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]

The savage drama of the landscape, the indomitable optimism of the people and the passion of the ubiquitous music – almost every character is a musician – is universal in its appeal.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
01/04/08
Wendy Ide
Wendy Ide
Times [UK]

Stylish, but never quite substantial enough, Half Moon never lives up to its stunning opening sequence.

Full Review Source: Film4 | comment Comment
01/04/08
Sam Jordison
Sam Jordison
Film4

Part quirky road-movie, part mythic fantasia, part rhapsodic celebration – and wholly captivating.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
01/04/08
Philip Kemp
Philip Kemp
Total Film

Surprisingly gripping despite its whimsical subject matter and often very funny.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
01/04/08
Paul Arendt
Paul Arendt
BBC

Illuminating, surreal, tear-jerking and funny, Half Moon is an unforgettable voyage into a land little seen.

Full Review Source: Sky Movies | comment Comment
01/04/08
Rob Daniel
Rob Daniel
Sky Movies

There’s something Styxian about the road travelled here that’s reinforced with imagery of death that elevates Ghobadi’s tale above the everyday.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
01/04/08
Dave Calhoun
Dave Calhoun
Time Out

An unflinching and affecting depiction of the region’s tragic lunacies.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
01/04/08
David Parkinson
David Parkinson
Empire Magazine
N/R

[Director Bahman Ghobadi] sparks a deeply humanist alchemy in unsentimental tales peopled by nonprofessional actors.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
01/03/08
Sheri Linden
Sheri Linden
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Opens our hearts and minds to the special place musicians play in the Kurdish culture and the ways in which they celebrate the human spirit.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
12/25/07
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

Death may come with the half moon, but there remains a promise of rebirth%u2014the full moon, which illuminates even the desperate landscape of Kurdistan.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
12/19/07
Maria Garcia
Maria Garcia
Film Journal International

a fascinating portrait of an underrepresented people, rich in humor, pathos and possible permutations

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
12/14/07
Jay Antani
Jay Antani
Boxoffice Magazine

For his poetic fourth feature, Half Moon, Bahman Ghobadi returns to the desolation of the Kurdish borderlands and the enduring optimism of his people.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
12/14/07
Jeannette Catsoulis
Jeannette Catsoulis
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Writer-director Bahman Ghobadi's picturesque road trip is less about preserving a musical heritage than accepting one's fate, a mythic trek that's both heartrending and boisterous -- often as hauntingly absurdist as a Kusturica carnival.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
12/11/07
Aaron Hillis
Aaron Hillis
Village Voice
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Balancing earthy humor and scarring tragedy, Bahman Ghobadi's portraits of Kurdish wanderers are particularly expressive of Iranian cinema's sense of hope within instability.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
12/11/07
Fernando F. Croce
Fernando F. Croce
Slant Magazine

The Kurds may not yet have a country, but as long as Bahman Ghobadi keeps making movies they have a national cinema.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
08/31/07
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

...a moving road movie that culminates in a dramatic, music-saturated finale.

Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
08/24/07
Robin Clifford
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews
 
 
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