Inspired by Mozart’s Requiem, this magic realist Kurdish road movie blends melodrama, poetry and absurdist comedy in a tribute to the human spirit that also recognises the inexorable prerogative of fate.
On the fall of Saddam, musician Ismail Ghaffari returns to his Iraqi homeland after 35 years. However, in order to play a concert, he needs to gather his ten scattered sons and smuggle singer Hedye Tehrani over the Iranian border.
Overcoming each obstacle with an obduracy as craggy as the landscape, Ghaffari embodies his people’s indomitability. But it’s Ghobadi’s deft discussion of culture and gender, and his unflinching depiction of the region’s tragic lunacies, that proves most affecting.