A Time for Drunken Horses - 2000
Directed by Bahman Ghobadi
Ayoub (Ayoub Ahmadi), an orphaned Kurdish child, smuggles contraband across the Iran/Iraq border in order to support his siblings. He goes to great lengths to raise money for his disabled brother Madi (Madi Ekhtiar Dini) who is in dire need of surgery. This film marks the first feature-length Iranian movie shot entirely in the Kurdish language and represents the first of director Bahman Ghobadi's films on the people of Kurdistan.
Color, 1 hour 20 minutes, Farsi/Kurdish
Original Title: Zamani Bara-ye Masti-ye Asbha
Trailer currently not available, Watch Scene (Kurdish w/English subtitles)
Star Rating
Firouzan Rank # 26
Cast
| Ayoub Ahmadi | Ayoub |
| Rojin Younessi | Rojin |
| Amaneh Ekhtiar Dini | Amaneh |
| Madi Ekhtiar Dini | Madi |
Crew
| Writer | Bahman Ghobadi |
| Director | Bahman Ghobadi |
| Producer | Bahman Ghobadi |
| Director of Photography | Saied Nikzat |
| Sound Recordist | Mortazi Dehnavi Mehdi Darabi |
| Production Designer | Omid Rastbin |
| Editor | Samad Tavazoii |
| Sound Mixer | Massoud Behnam Mahmoud Moussavinejhad |
| Music | Hossein Ali Zadeh |
Pictures
Even children don't make it across the border without being searched.
Ayoub (Ayoub Ahmadi) and his siblings are taken care for by their sometimes domineering uncle.
Amaneh (Amaneh Ekhtiar Dini) visits her parents' grave.
Before a smuggling run, the pack mules are given alcohol so they can navigate mountainous terrain.
Young Madi (Madi Ekhtiar Dini) stares at the present Ayoub bought for him in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The children's uncle agrees to marry off Rojin to a family from the Iraqi side of the border so long as they take Madi as well.
Rojin (Rojin Younessi) goes along with the marriage plan for Madi's sake, he is in dire need of surgery available in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The wedding train.
Ayoub is displeased with his uncle's decision.
Madi looks on as Rojin's new family reneges on their agreement, instead of taking in Madi they give a mule as dowry.
Ayoub puts his family's new mule to work joining up with smugglers in hopes of finally taking Madi to Iraqi Kurdistan for surgery.
DVD
DVD box art currently not available
External Reviews
By A.O. Scott The New York Times
Bahman Ghobadi's "A Time for Drunken Horses" is the latest Iranian film to deal with the lives of children. The film takes place in a wintry, mountainous Kurdish area near the Iraqi border, where the main livelihood seems to be smuggling goods by mule across valleys strewn with land mines and menaced by bandits and military patrols.
Ayoub, the eldest boy in a family of five children orphaned early in the film by a mine, tries to provide for his brothers and sisters in these almost unendurably harsh circumstances. The film -- slow, bleak and terribly moving -- follows his attempt to obtain medical treatment for his severely handicapped brother, Madi, who will die without an operation. Continued
By Peter Rainer New York Magazine
Bahman Ghobadi, the young Iranian whose first feature is "A Time for Drunken Horses," has a marvelous eye for children's faces. He brings out not only their innocence but also their preternatural gravity. At times, you feel as if you could look into one of these faces and see the whole life that will be imprinted upon it. Continued
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