Old School Reviews: Bahman Ghobadi, Marooned in Iraq

Marooned in Iraq (2002)

Director: Bahman Ghobadi

Stars: Shahab Ebrahimi, Faegh Mohamadi

Release Company: Wellspring Media

MPAA Rating: NR

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Outside of Antarctica, it's difficult to imagine a harsher climate than the Kurdistan locale on the Iraqi-Iranian border, made even more inhospitable by Saddam Hussein's campaign of genocide against the Kurds in the early 1990's. Such was the setting for Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi's first feature A Time for Drunken Horses, which poignantly chronicled an orphan family's courageous fight to save their dying brother. He follows this drama with a much lighter touch in Marooned in Iraq (Gomgashtei dar Aragh). Once again set in Kurdistan during the Iraqi-Iran war, you'd imagine it difficult to find humor in such a devastated region, but Ghobadi finds a way. His second feature takes on the road movie with comic flare, as noted elderly singer Mirza (Shahab Ebrahimi) seeks his ex-wife in the bombed out region, accompanied by his two musician sons, Barat (Faegh Mohammadi) and Audeh (Allah-Morad Rashtian).

Beginning with shaky hand held camera images looking skyward in a rocky canyon, we first meet Barat astride his motorbike while riding with a group of people on a tractor-driven wagon for safety sake. With thieves on the road, there's safety in numbers (as we'll see in subsequent scenes). One septuagenarian "doctor" counters all the others who curse Saddam by explaining how he has exploited the situation to market black and white televisions, AIDS medication for donkeys, and other wares to the displaced Kurds. From his point of view, Saddam has been very good to him—the dictator has inadvertently made him relatively wealthy. We'll run into this man three other times during the film in cameos designed for comic relief.

Actually, all three main characters cope with a tremendous sense of humor and excellent musicianship, bringing recollections of the Marx brothers without the outrageous slapstick and with the zaniness toned down. Although sight gags are sparse, the verbal sparring is a constant, making their relationship believable. Only people who know each other well would tease to this extent, and their relationships with women become a source for comic digs. Mirza's wife ran off with another member of his musical troupe, but he claims that she never divorced him (a ploy to convince his sons to help him). The unmarried Barat falls in love with a woman's singing voice and instantly offers to marry her while Audeh complains that his seven wives have not produced a son and that he's on the lookout for another wife that will. When he abruptly proposes to a refugee organizer, she retorts, "Why make another woman unhappy?" She offers a happy solution for him, on the other hand, which also delights.

Lest you think Ghobadi intends to only entertain with romantic comedy, he also works in heavy messages about the horrors of Saddam Hussein's tyrannical regime. The film takes on a darker edge the closer Mirza gets to his ex-wife, and we witness first hand the horrors of mass graves and the disfiguring effects of chemical weaponry. But rather than beat us over the head with continual images of bombings and chemical weapons along the lines of Samira Makhmalbaf's didactic Blackboards, Ghobadi more effectively threads his human drama with lively and very human characters that unabashedly face their hardships with humor and song. Life must go on, and Ghobadi offers a far more realistic view of Kurdish life and culture than we'll ever see from dire reports on CNN with shivering grim faced reporters.

Once again eschewing professional actors in favor of casting locals, Ghobadi's minimalist film offers far more insight into Kurdish life and culture than we're likely to experience otherwise. Marooned in Iraq is filled with far more talk than most Iranian films, and the characters often repeat themselves with the volume turned on high. While this emphasizes their points, and doubly ensures that we'll catch the dry humor, it can be a jarring introduction to Iranian film. I'm unsure whether this has to do more with production values or amateurish acting, it's a minor distraction for patient viewers.

Neophytes to the genre may also be put off by the lack of resolution at the end, as Ghobadi nearly reprises the same ending contained in his initial feature, but anyone naively expecting formulaic happy endings in such a setting must be delusional. Just as die hard Cubs fans have discovered, life may be filled with bitter disappointments and losses, yet hope must always remain eternal.

Ghobadi's two films both impressively capture the essence of Kurdish spirit, making both features essential viewing for anyone interested in the culture. Kurdish humanity shines through even more effectively in his latest endeavor, as Ghobadi's witty dialogue successfully balances pathos and humor in palatable fashion. Comparisons to prominent Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami are inevitable and it's no sacrilege to link Ghobadi's name with the best of Iranian cinema. I'm certainly looking forward to his future projects.