Wonderful Movie

Load of rubbish!!

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

........................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, Colombia...and ORLANDO, FL 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. (Tried, but 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 is never 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! 9*.....ENJOY/DISFRUTELA! Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome!

In the film, "Marooned in Iraq" the audience is taken on a journey through the mountain ranges of Iraq, from decrepit town to decrepit town, with three family musicians. A short synopsis of the film is as follows; the three men, father and sons set out to find the father's "wife." I stress "wife" because throughout the film the audience is unsure whether or not she is still married to him. Along the way they run into a number of characters which help to carry the plot along. Aside from the movie taking entirely too long to develop and entirely too hard to pay attention, I found some good aspects that should be addressed not only for westerners but also for middle easterners as well.One thing that I noticed that benefits the film is that the theme of women's' role in the Iraqi society is so detrimental for the future of Iraqi women. It is obvious that the entire film follows a narrow road in which only misfortune is evident. Women are not allowed to sing in this community and this is why the father's wife ran away, because she wanted to sing. Even though the father journeyed to look for her and eventually finds her without knowing says something about the director's commentary on the role of women and their rights. But, even though he does not get his wife he gets her daughter which also states an interesting notion and raises some suspicion among audience members. Although the film shows the trouble in the society I think that with the ending that the director has provided us with says that he believes that the future holds triumph in regards of women in Iraq.

Mizra asks his sons, Barat and Audeh, to go on a journey to find his ex-wife, Hanareh, and help her. His sons think they are still married and she ran away. The father won't tell them the real truth because he knows they won't help him if they're not still married. He has been told she is in trouble, but he doesn't know how.Mizra went on the journey to find Hanareh, Barat just went along for the ride, and Audeh went to find himself a wife that could produce him a son. I thought this movie was interesting because it kept you wanting to know what happened next. On their journey they had many stops to try and find out exactly where Hanareh was. At each of the stops it was as though something else aside from finding her was going on with one of the brothers.Since the movie was in Kurdish, Persian, and Arabic reading the subtitles made it harder to pay attention to every detail that was going on in the movie, but didn't keep me from understanding what was going on. The subtitles were hard to read at some points because they were yellow and it seemed to blend in at times. This was when my attention was taken away from the actual picture part of the movie to try and understand what they were saying. It was easy though to get back into the movie after I understood what they were saying.Since this is a more romantic movie with them being in the search for love I think women would enjoy this movie more than men. The long journey the family takes all in the search for love ends up being broken up. In the end not everyone finds what they were looking for… or did they?

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.