Bekas

Zana and Dana live in a town in Kurdistan. There are no parents. They shine shoes in the street and sleep on a church roof. One day they watch a Superman film through the cinema window; they have no money to go in. From that day they make a plan: they will go to America and find Superman. The road needs a passport, it needs money, and they buy a donkey. The donkey is called Michael Jackson. The border is far and the two boys do not know how the world works. Karzan Kader writes and directs; it is his first feature. Zamand Taha plays Zana and Sarwar Fazil plays Dana. It is a Swedish and Iraqi co-production. The film was developed from the director's short of the same name, which had won awards. Kader went from Iraq to Sweden as a refugee with his family as a child; the narrative rests on his own childhood. It was shot in Iraqi Kurdistan and the two boys were cast in the region. It is set in the Saddam period; the politics is kept in the background and seen from the children's view. The matter it treats is the dream of escape; the film does not build it as a sweet fable and reality waits at the end of the road. The relation between the brothers is at the centre; the elder is always protecting and the younger does not listen. The ending is left open. Its limit is the production; the budget shows, the narrative is simple, and the ending unresolved. Who it is for: viewers who like films from a child's viewpoint and Middle Eastern cinema. Who it is not for: it is simple, sad, and the ending open.