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Film feast KurdishCinema.com - March 5 2008 By James M. Wall* During this year's Montreal World Film Festival, I spoke with Suayip Adlig, a producer of the Iraqi Kurdish film Narcissus Blossom. I liked the picture; it's one of those little gems that turn up at Montreal in small, out-of-the-way screening rooms in the late afternoon. The film is a gritty, realistic portrait of the U.S. role in the betrayal of the Kurdish people's desire for independence. Earlier this year, Narcissus Blossom won an award from Amnesty International at the Berlin Film Festival. Now Adlig has set his sights on the U.S., with no less a goal than the Academy Awards foreign-film competition. Before he can qualify for that competition, however, he needs to find a theater that will show his film in Los Angeles for one week. He will have a tough sell, given the current political climate, but Adlig is not discouraged. He says he is looking for "one courageous American theater owner." As Narcissus Blossom opens, a Kurdish family is watching a television report on the signing of the 1975 Algiers Accord, an agreement between Iran and Iraq. The accord was arranged by Henry Kissinger, President Ford's secretary of state. Earlier, Kissinger had promised the Kurds full U.S. support via Iran in their struggle for freedom from Iraq. Then, in a diplomatic tap dance, the Kurds were abandoned in a war they could not win alone. The Iraqi Kurds were betrayed again in 1991 when the first Bush administration, which had promised support for a Kurdish uprising against Saddam Hussein, decided to halt all fighting against Saddam to preserve a "united Iraq." Ironically, the 2003 invasion under George W. Bush's leadership has moved the Iraqi Kurds closer to the independence denied them earlier. This outcome is certainly not part of the Bush vision for the Middle East. The Montreal festival performs a special role among North American festivals. Unlike the Toronto festival, which is largely a showcase for major productions and is heavily influenced by U.S. film companies, Montreal is a place for independent filmmakers from outside North America to show their work. Iranian director Majid Majidi, for example, introduced Children of Heaven and The Color of Paradise at Montreal. Both enjoyed successful runs in U.S. art-house theaters and in DVD sales. Adlig hopes to duplicate Majidi's success. During the festival, news reached Montreal that Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani had threatened to secede from Iraq unless he was allowed to fly the Kurdish flag instead of the national flag. Narcissus Blossom, codirected by Masoud Arif Salih and Hussein Hassan Ali, depicts the passion behind such a threat. Its insights need to be understood by American media and political decision makers. The film depicts the birth of the peshmerga, or "those who face death," the Kurdish militia formed in 1975 to fight for an independent Kurdistan on the Iran/Iraq border. Today, the peshmerga provides the region with its military arm. They are a fighting force motivated not by religious radicalism, but by a desire for independence. * James M. Wall is senior contributing editor at the Century magazine. source: www.cfk2.fr |
