Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi directed this wartime drama leavened with comedy, which at once examines the Gulf War of the early '90s and offers a prescient perspective on the attitudes and events which (in part) led to the War in Iraq in 2003. It's 1991, and in the wake of the War in the Persian Gulf, Saddam Hussein's forces are laying waste to villages in Iraq and Kurdistan believed to be harboring rebel forces who were attempting to bring down Hussein's regime with the encouragement, but
without the military support, of the United States. In the midst of this chaos, Mirza (Shahab Ebrahimi), an elderly Kurdish singer living in Iran, becomes concerned about the safety of his ex-wife and former singing partner, Hanareh (Iran Ghobadi), who over two decades earlier left him to marry another member of their ensemble and move to Kurdistan. Mirza rounds up his sons, Barat (Faegh Mohamadi) and Audeh (Allah-Morad Rashtian), and together they set out to find Hanareh, constantly bickering along the way. While Mirza and his sons witness firsthand the horrible devastation which has been visited upon Iraq by both U.S. bombs and Hussein's bloody reprisals, they also find moments of beauty and humor along the way, and come to better understand the strength of their people under unimaginable adversity. Marooned in Iraq was screened as part of the "Un Certain Regard" series at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Impresses with its varied notes and clear understanding of the powerful entertainment value in a road picture spryly maneuvering across heavily mined terrain.
Ghobadi does a professional job of melding these disparate parts together, carefully using the hard, scraggly Kurdistan landscape and the overhead sounds of war as tie-ins.
The Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi made an impressive feature debut with the tragic tale of child smugglers A Time for Drunken Horses. Events in his second movie, Marooned in Iraq, are even more heart-rending.
Moving from the harsh reportage of his first feature, A Time for Drunken Horses, Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi looks at life through the all-seeing but forgiving lens of comedy.
Ghobadi has found a way to use the quest of one man to show all the problems in Kurdistan. It's interesting, occasionally funny and thought-provoking, but doesn't quite capture your heart.
Eliciting affecting performances from his cast of nonprofessionals (all with fascinating faces), Ghobadi manages to balance the inhumanity with humanity.
"Marooned in Iraq" takes place in the Kurd dominated regions of Iran and Iraq, towards the end of the Iran/Iraq war. An older musician named Mirza goes in search of his ex(?)-wife, along with his two sons - one unmarried, one married seven times over, with eleven daughters and desperately wants another wife to finally
give him a son.(The latter son is in desperate need of feminist teachings. Considering that women cannot sing out in public, perhaps the whole region is, also.) What happens is a journey funny, dangerous and touching - as the trio wanders on the edge of a war zone and witness the destruction that Saddam Hussein has wrought first hand. They also meet up with characters who try and profit from the war plus those whose lives the war has changed for the worst.
January 31, 2005
Walter M.
Super Reviewer
If you enjoy foreign films, this is a good one. A fine example of the passion of the Kurdish people.
No quotes approved yet for Marooned In Iraq. Logged in users can submit quotes.
Submit a Quote from 'Marooned In Iraq'
A quote can be a single line from one character or a memorable dialog between several characters. Please make your quotes accurate. Quotes will be submitted for approval by the RT staff.
Example:
Luke: Alright. I'll give it a try. Yoda: No. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.
Top Critic
