- A time for drunken horses
Zamani baraye masti-e asbha (on video and DVD) Winner, Camera d'Or
- Cannes Film Festival, 2000
"...cinematic storytelling that attains profundity through sheer simplicity."
- Geoff Pevere, The Toronto Star
"...a film of simplicity and power, beautifully shot and effortlessly acted..."
- Los Angeles Times
Winner of the Camera d'Or at Cannes Film Festival and an international film festival favourite, Bahman Ghobadi's unforgettable film follows a real-life sibling-family in their struggle to survive just off the Iraqi border in Iranian Kurdistan.
The Kurds are a nation without a state, probably the largest stateless people in the world, comprising over 30 million people. With a history full of turmoil and oppression, A Time for Drunken Horses is a tale of 5 orphaned siblings living high up in the cold, snowy and stark mountains of Iranian Kurdistan. Based on a true story, A Time for Drunken Horses follows this child-family in its desperate struggle to survive.
The eldest of the clan, Ayoub, only 15, is forced into the smuggling trade in order to raise money to save his younger brother from a life-threatening illness. While transporting goods between the Iranian and Iraqi Kurdistan border, smugglers ply their horses with ample amounts of whiskey so they are able to tolerate both the extreme elements and their heavy loads. Once smugglers hit the snow-bound mine-infested trails, they're met with gunfire and ambushes. In a land where survival is paramount, having to find money for an expensive operation is not only unattainable but life-threatening.
An extraordinary film with a haunting soundtrack, A Time for Drunken Horses paints a true-life tale that engages and wrenches your heart the entire way through.
A Time for Drunken Horses is Bahman Ghobadi's first feature film. Between 1995 and 1999 Bahman Ghobadi directed ten short films. In 1999, he worked as first assistant director to Abbas Kiarostami during the shooting of "The Wind Will Carry Us". Ghobadi also had a principal acting part in Samira Makhmalbaf's "Blackboards" (to be released by Mongrel Media in 2001).
