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Also in this section:
A Moving Look At Iran & Its People
A Time for Drunken Horses
The
New York Post
October 27, 2000
Like so many of the wonderful films that have
come out of Iran in recent years, Bahman Ghobadi's moving "A
Time for Drunken Horses" avoids government censorship by
telling a story through the eyes of children, and achieves a
neo-realist authenticity by using non-professional actors.
In this case, the children are Kurdish orphans
who live in an impoverished village near the Iran-Iraq border
where the people subsist on money made in the risky business
of smuggling.
When a land-mine explosion kills their father,
the oldest little boy, Ayoub, gets a job carrying heavy loads
through the snow to support the family.
But Ayoub's disabled brother, Madi needs an
operation, and the children try to figure out another way of
raising funds.
Ghobadi (himself an Iranian Kurd) takes some
gorgeous shots against the snow, but his storytelling is
uneven and often slow. Inadequate subtitles don't help.
But watching these kids burdened by crushing
adult responsibilities is heartrending stuff, and the
documentary-style picture it paints of a people and a place is
fascinating.
Running time: 77 minutes. Not rated (nothing objectionable).