Attendees to this film will receive £2 discount on tickets for Music of Iraq concert at Roxy Art House, 16/05/09. Film ticket required to receive this discount.

Synopsis

Shawkat Amin Korki on set

A road movie shot in a documentary style about two Kurdish soldiers who have to take food to their comrades along dusty Iraqi roads. On the way, they find a lost boy by the name of Saddam. Should they help him or not?

Shawkat Amin Korki (born in Iraqi Kurdistan) deals in his first feature-length film with the recent history of his country. The story takes place in Iraq during the American invasion in 2003 and the day of the fall of Saddam’s regime in a sensitive and lyrical look at this turbulent time.

It is an unusual and unplanned road movie about two Kurdish soldiers, who truck in food supplies to their comrades-in-arms, and a five year-old boy they find lost on the street. One of the soldiers, Asad, takes pity on the boy and wants to help him find his family. The other one, Rashid, is a tougher – certainly after he hears that the boy’s name is Saddam. He fiercely refuses to help the child. The two soldiers continue to quarrel about whether to help the boy or not while they carry on their way. They travel in the dust tracks, the boy between them. After their vehicle gets stolen they wander around the dried-out countryside that has been destroyed by war, and where the most common sight is soldiers and tanks.

The film is a personal drama in a time of war – for the soldiers, the boy and many others – and this is hightened especially with its documentary-like feel and use of non-professional actors. This film has a simplicity that effectively conveys the absurdity and chaos of war.

Biography

Shawkat Amin Korki was born in 1973 in Zakho – Iraqi Kurdistan In 1975 he and his family escaped to Iran fearing for repression of Iraqi army and stayed there until 1999.

He has worked in Theatre, TV & Cinema in Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan.His short films have participated in many film festivals and some of them have been rewarded.In 2002, He managed the First Kurdistan Short Film Festival.

Plus Short: Ali The Iraqi

Synopsis

Still from Ali the Iraq

Nasser, a former Iraqi military officer, and his teenage son, Ali, have just emigrated from Iraq to the United States. Torn between assimilation and rejection of his new environment, and between looking up to and renouncing his father’s generation, Ali must decide what it means to be an Iraqi, an Arab, and a Muslim in America as Iraq spirals further into violence.

Biography

Vatche Boulghourjian is a Lebanese filmmaker and video artist. He has directed, shot, and edited several documentaries, short and experimental films. Boulghourjian attends the Graduate Film Program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. His thesis film, currently in production, was awarded a grant from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

• Director: Vatche Boulghourjian
• 22 mins, 2008 Lebanon/USA
• Language: Arabic with English Subtitles