Half Moon - 2006
Directed by Bahman Ghobadi
Mamo (Ismail Ghaffari), a legendary Kurdish musician, gathers his twelve sons and sets out for the border between Iranian and Iraqi Kurdistan so the group can perform at a "freedom" concert in Iraq. The concert would mark the first performance of traditional Kurdish music in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein who had banned Kurdish music during his reign. The historic event is so important to Mamo, whose health is fading, that he ignores premonitions of his own death to venture on with his sons, who are themselves reluctant to make the journey.
Color, 1 hour 47 minutes, Kurdish/Farsi
Original Title: Niwemang
Trailer currently not available, Watch Scene (Kurdish w/English subtitles)
Star Rating
Firouzan Rank # 33
Cast
| Ismail Ghaffari | Mamo |
| Ollah Morad Rashtiani | Kako |
| Farzin Sabouni | |
| Kambiz Arshi | |
| Mohammad Nahid | |
| Sadiq Behzadpour | Shouan |
| Ali Ashraf Rezaii | |
| Reza Haj Khosravi | |
| Bahram Zarei | |
| Hediyeh Tehrani | Hesho |
| Golshifteh Farahani | Niwemang |
| Hassan Pour Shirazi | Border Policeman |
| Shole Ghorbani | |
| Fouad Pishva | |
| Saber Delbina | |
| Jalal Babazadeh | |
| Hossein Khani | |
| Faegh Mohammadi | Faegh |
| Mohammad Khoshabrou | |
| Mohammad Mirzaei | |
| Shokat Karimi |
Crew
| Writer | Bahman Ghobadi Behnam Behzadi |
| Director | Bahman Ghobadi |
| Producer | Bahman Ghobadi |
| Director of Photography | Nigel Bluck Crighton Bone |
| Sound Recordist | Bahman Ardalan |
| Production Designer | Mansoureh Yazdanjou Bahman Ghobadi |
| Editor | Hayedeh Safiyari |
| Sound Mixer | Massoud Behnam Hamid Naghibi |
| Music | Hossein Ali Zadeh |
Pictures
The musician and his sons cover most of the territory in a borrowed school bus driven by the incompetent but well-meaning driver Kako, played by now Ghobadi-regular Ollah Morad Rashtiani.
Mamo the musician (Ismail Ghaffari), who often takes to lying in open graves, is haunted by visions of his own demise.
The Half Moon.
Mamo's sole daughter Senour teaches a group of transplanted students made homeless by flooding. She has recently fallen ill and unable to travel with her family, which denies the band a crucially needed female voice.
Kako looks on in disbelief as Mamo uses an unconventional method to halt one of his son's escape. Not all of his sons are enthusiastic abut the dangers involved with successfully crossing the border into Iraqi Kurdistan.
Playing some music to pass time on the bus.
One of Mamo's sons relays a warning from the local wise man against taking the trip, "something bad will happen on the 14th night of the lunar moon."
Memo makes a stop at the "place where 1,334 woman singers have been exiled" to pick up the group's female singer and his personal muse Hesho (Hediyeh Tehrani).
Mamo and his sons have several run-ins with the Iranian border patrol.
When Mamo's health fails he is helped by the mysterious Niwemang (Golshifteh Farahani).
DVD
External Reviews
By Jeannette Catsoulis The New York Times
For his poetic fourth feature, "Half Moon," the Kurdish-Iranian writer and director Bahman Ghobadi returns to the breathtaking desolation of the Kurdish borderlands and the enduring optimism of his people.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein, Mamo (Ismail Ghaffari), a famed Kurdish musician living in Iran, gathers his many sons for a trip across the border to Iraqi Kurdistan and a long-planned celebratory concert. Despite failing health and his offspring's fluctuating commitment to the dangerous enterprise, Mamo is resolute; neither callous border guards nor his own recurring premonitions of disaster will derail the performance. Continued
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