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A time for drunken horses - Ayoub Ahmadi, Madi Ekhtiar-Dini, Rojin Younessi, Bahman Ghobadi

Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

The story takes place in a remote, mountainous area near the Iran-Iraq border in the Kurdish region of Iran. Ayoub (Ayoub Ahmadi), a hard-working adolescent, along with his three sisters and two brothers live a harsh life of economic deprivation. Their mother is dead and their smuggler father is away. Every day Ayoub and other village boys compete for a trip to a small town, where they are used for an assortment of odd jobs, including smuggling goods under their clothes.

Ayoub and his impoverished family face a new hardship when the local doctor tells them their handicapped brother, Madi (Madi Ekhtiar-Dini), is critically ill and will die unless they take him to town for a hospital operation. Although they are told the operation will prolong Madi's life for only a few months, the family is determined to help Madi. Ayoub hopelessly tries but fails to raise money. His elder sister, Rojin (Rojin Younessi), agrees to marry an Iraqi Kurd across the border on the condition that the groom's family pay for her brother's operation in Iraq.

Upon the bridal party's arrival, the groom's mother refuses to accept Madi, and after a heated argument, they give a mule in compensation to Rojin's family. Ayoub joins a group of smugglers to cross the border into Iraq to sell the mule for Madi's operation. The freezing, snow-covered mountain terrain in the war zone is so treacherous that the smugglers have to intoxicate their horses to move them.

Theatrical propaganda posters

A time for drunken horses image

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

  • Film Iran Kurd drama child marriage

Persons of interest

  • Ayoub Ahmadi .... Ayoub
  • Madi Ekhtiar-Dini .... Madi
  • Rojin Younessi .... Rojin
  • Amaneh Ekhtiar-Dini .... Amaneh
  • Kolsolum Ekhtiar-Dini
  • Karim Ekhtiar-Dini
  • Rahman Salehi
  • Osman Karimi
  • Nezhad Ekhtiar-Din
  • Bahman Ghobadi .... Screenwriter
  • Bahman Ghobadi .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Wow. Here's the lettuce, pure and simple: do not see A time for drunken horses if...

  • you hate movies where they don't talk English because if god had meant those sort of people to be in movies he would've taught them to talk English;
  • you hate movies where they put writing at the bottom of the screen because you can't look at the pictures and listen to the words and eat the popcorn and drink the coke and read the writing all at the same time;
  • you hate movies that don't have a beginning and a middle and an end, in that order, because no-one can understand them, like that dumb movie you saw called Memento that you didn't understand at all;

but do see A time for drunken horses if...

  • you are a hebophile because Ayoub is a beautiful boy who could charm the snow from the sky if he wanted to. He can also act: there is not a moment when Ayoub is a child because there is not a moment when Ayoub can be a child. Childhood is for rich people;
  • you can be astounded by the potency of a simple image;
  • you are willing to wait for the reward inherent in a film well made;
  • you are a film student;
  • you love cinema;
  • you saw Himalaya and need to witness the harsh reality of life again;
  • you are happy to accept the raw performances of non-actors because they have an edgy reality that the practised, polished performances of professional performers often lack;
  • you thrill to the thought that film can be more than Hollywood.

Security censorship classification

M (Adult themes)

Surveillance time

80 minutes (1:20 hours)

Not for public release in Australia before date

Film: 17 June 2001 - Sydney Film Festival
Film: 22 June 2001 - Sydney Film Festival

Cinema surveillance images

A time for drunken horses imageA time for drunken horses imageA time for drunken horses image

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Message from Bahman

I was born and raised in a small town in the Kurdish region of Iran. My childhood and adolescent memories in Kurdistan have been the strongest source of influence for my films. A time for drunken horses is my first feature film and one of the first Iranian films shot in Kurdish. I made this film as a humble tribute to my cultural heritage.

I believe film is an excellent medium for promoting a deeper awareness of the Kurds, a 20-million strong ethnic group living as minorities in Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Syria. The Kurds you see in this film are not figments of my imagination. They represent real people, whose brave struggle for survival I have personally witnessed in my thirty years of living among them.

Bahman

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Production notes

Who are the Kurds?

The Kurds, a non-Arab Middle Eastern ethnic group, descend from the Indo-European tribes whose origins date back to 600 CE during the reign of the Medians.

They are mostly Sunni Muslims, with pockets of Jewish and Christian minorities among them. There is no single Kurdish language. The various governments controlling the Kurds in several countries have always tried to assimilate them and keep them from promoting their own language and culture. Consequently, the variety of dialects and sub-dialects has made it difficult for the Kurds of different regions to communicate with one another and develop a cultural cohesion.

The Kurds are considered the largest ethnic group in the world without their own state. The current population of more than 20 million Kurds live in an area known as Kurdistan, which encompasses parts of Turkey (10 million Kurds), Iran (6 million), Iraq (4 million) and Syria (1 million). The constant political turmoil, resulting from suppressing the Kurdish aspirations for self-governance, has also displaced hundreds of thousands of Kurds to Europe and the USA.

In Turkey, until a few years ago, the Kurds were not even allowed to identify themselves as Kurds. The government would refer to them as Mountain Turks. The USA-aided capture of the PKK (Kurdistan's Worker's Party) leader last year has brought the long hostilities between the Kurds and the Turkish military to a halt for the time being.

In Iran, the Kurds live as a Sunni minority in a Shiite-dominated theocracy. Their leaders have been victims of assassination plots carried out by the agents of the Iranian government abroad.

In Iraq, after years of violent suppression by Saddam Hussein, the Kurds are currently enjoying an autonomous existence, where they have their own parliament, media and the freedom of teaching their culture and language.

In Syria, the Kurds are suffering from limitations on their cultural rights and some are not even recognised as citizens.

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Jamsheed Akrami interviews Bahman

How did you come up with the idea for A time for drunken horses?

The film is loosely based on a story I used for one of my short films as well. That film, Life in fog, was made almost by accident. I was supposed to make a film about a military operation when I ran into a boy who had lost his parents and had a tough time making a living. I called my producer and told him I wanted to change my subject. He agreed, and I made Life in fog. Although that film won many national and international awards, not too many people saw it. That's why I decided to use the same premise of hard working border kids and develop it into a feature film.

You started shooting the film with a different title: Arbaba's acorns. What did that title mean?

Arbaba is a beautiful border mountain that is used by the smugglers to cross into Iraq. I used acorns as a symbolic reference to the kids who, under trying circumstances imposed on them, have become so tough and hardened.

Why did you change the title?

I wanted to bring attention to the suffering of the poor horses as well. They are forced to carry heavy loads over the uphill mountain paths in extremely cold weather. Since they normally refuse to do so, the smugglers intoxicate them by mixing their water with vodka. This is totally inhumane.

And I understand you had originally conceived a different ending.

Yes. For a while, I was thinking about ending the film at the border hospital.

The locations and the weather must have made it hard to shoot the film.

It took me two years to shoot the film. I wanted to make the whole film in a cold and snowy winter, but the 1999 winter saw very little snow and I was not happy with the way some key scenes had been shot. The more I looked at the film during the editing, the more I felt dissatisfied. So I decided to wait for the following winter to re-shoot two scenes the way I had envisioned them.

The film's producer, the Farabi Cinema Foundation, that had been very co-operative throughout, decided to back out of the project rather than wait for a delayed completion. I needed to raise enough money to buy them out and finish the film on my own. To do this, I had to sell my family belongings and borrow money from friends and relatives, who in turn had to sell their belongings to fund the film. I feel so indebted to these people, without whose help this film would never have been finished. Somehow all the difficulties we experienced behind-the-scenes seemed to find their way into the film and infuse it with a sense of desperation it really needed.

What is the main attraction of Kurdistan as a location for you?

With the kind of budgets I have for my films, I can only make them in Kurdistan. The people are so supportive. They really mobilise themselves to help. Maybe they appreciate the fact that I am the only Kurdish filmmaker. Besides, my stories are all about them, the people I have known all my life. So, it's natural that I make my films in Kurdistan. Besides, I love to do stories in difficult weather conditions, which is not too hard to find in Kurdistan.

How did you find your non-actors? What are they doing now?

They all live in the same village in Baneh, where the film was shot. In fact, some of the kids are from the same family. They have no electricity, no television sets and no modern means of comfort. That probably sounds awful from our point of view, but they are perfectly happy with what they have. Despite many hardships, they still enjoy their lives. They are all doing fine now. I visit them every two months or so and live with them for a while.

You'll shoot your next film in Iraq's Kurdistan. How's the relationship between you and the Iraqi Kurds?

To me the Iraqi Kurds are the same as Iranian Kurds. In the film, the Iraqi Kurds are seen alongside Iranians in the bazaar scenes. There is a friendly relationship between the Kurds of Iran and Iraq right now. Just like you see in the film, some times we have marriages between Iranian and Iraqi Kurds.

How was the film received in Iran?

It's been only shown in Kurdish towns so far, and the reception was quite warm and enthusiastic. It actually exceeded our expectations. In some towns, they had to add extra screenings to accommodate the people who were anxious to see the film. It will open in the rest of the country soon, and I hope the non-Kurdish audiences will react to it just as warmly.

You worked with Abbas Kiarostami as an assistant. Did you feel his influence when you made your own film?

I learned so much from Mr Kiarostami, and it was a real honour for me to work with him. But I think I have different sensibilities as a filmmaker. The issues I am preoccupied with, and the way I approach them are different. Mr Kiarostami even generously offered me an idea for a script called The honeybee, but after thinking about it seriously, I decided I just couldn't do it. I have a natural tendency to make intense films. I don't think you will see a shot in my film that'll remind you of Mr Kiarostami's work.

Was he interested in you because he was shooting in Kurdistan?

Well, I was the one who contacted him and asked him if I could be his assistant on the project. He graciously accepted and I consider the days I spent working with him among my most memorable days. I worked not only behind the camera but also in front of it. I was the man in that ditch!

You also acted in Xamira Makhmalbaf's Blackboard.

Yes. Initially, I was not supposed to act in that film. I was an advisor to Mr [Mohsen] Makhmalbaf. But they could not find the actor they were looking for and asked me to do the part. I accepted out of respect for Mr Makhmalbaf, but the whole experience didn't turn out the way I had expected.

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