Rosebud
UK Premiere
Shawkat Amin Korki/Iraq, Kurdistan 2009/81 min
Set exactly twenty years after the largest chemical weapons attack on civilians in history, writer/director Shawkat Amin Korki’s 2009 film tells the reportedly true story of a group of Kurdish refugees who’ve settled in a barren and unused outdoor football stadium (the opposite of what’s been happening in South Africa this year, where communities have been abruptly uprooted to make way for the World Cup). The fragmenting effect of Saddam’s attack has left the divisions of indigenous people thrown together, and here Asu (excellently played by Kurdish crooner Shwan Atuf) attempts to put together a football match between the Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians and Turks, in an effort to bring hope to lives filled with daily terror.
Director of Photography Salem Salawati’s drained visuals say it all; there may be moments of colour amid the bleakness, but they are few and far between. Korki, stays on the ball by keeping the dramatic structure tight and unfussy, endearing us to the community with entirely believable and fleshed out characters before pulling one hell of a dramatic sucker-punch that will leave you winded. It’s a sobering and prescient reminder that the Western attempt to create stability in Iraq took no account of the divisions within the society itself, and Korki wants to remind us, forcefully, that Iraq is in need of some solidarity, not more terror.
Showing @ Cineworld Sat 19th Jun 13:15 & Sun 20th Jun 13:30
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