After their father dies, a family of five are forced to survive on their own in a Kurdish village on the border of Iran and Iraq. Matters are made worse when 12 year old Ayoub, the new head of the family, is told that his handicapped brother, Madi, needs an immediate operation in order to remain alive. This heartbreaking tale shows the lengths to which a family will go in order to survive in the harshest of conditions, where even the horses are fed liquor in order to work.




viewer's comments:



- Another gem from Iran

Iran must have a very strong storytelling tradition, because I've seen about 7 movies from there in the last year and (with the exception of The Wind Will Carry Us), they've all been amazing. Next to the White Balloon this one was my favorite. Months after seeing it I still feel awful about complaining about traffic or any of the "problems" in my life when I think of the things a 12 year old Ayoub had to deal with (my big problem when I was 12, my mom threatening to throw my baseball cards away, doesn't quite compare...). It's so rare to see such a display of devotion, perseverance, maturity that doesn't look totally contrived. Add to that that these were all amateur actors and you end up with something from the heart that has a lot of depth. 9/10



- Well-said by others, this is truly a masterpiece

This film is a masterpiece in Iranian cinema. Its rare for other films to convey as much emotion as this one did, yet maintaining a very dramatic and professional vibe. Ghobadi's work as an assistant truly paid off and this film is undoubtebly in my top 10 Iranian films of all time. a masterpiece.



- Beautiful

In his most recent film, "A Time for Drunken Horses," Director Bahman Ghobadi depicts the hardship of life in the Kurdish region straddling the border between Iran and Iraq.

At the beginning of the film, a truck full of children makes its way through the snowy Iranian mountains. The large group of children sing in Arabic about how the winding road makes them older. You get the sense that they don't really know what they are singing about, but the song is indicative of how many of these children will be thrust into the realities of adulthood with little warning and even less preparation.

A young Kurd, Ayoub, must avert government brutality and raise the money to pay for an operation for his ailing younger brother.

Their father has just been killed by authorities and the teen must work to provide for the rest of the family. The only way he can raise the money is by smuggling goods across the border from Iraq to Iran, risking extremely cold temperatures, land mines and military raids.

Much to his credit, Ghobadi uses locals instead of professional actors throughout the film. The children who portray the three major characters (Ayoub, his sister Amaneh and their young, disabled brother Madi) give brilliant, fresh performances. Ayoub and Amaneh are convincing as a brother and sister attempting to hold their family together.

These children shed real tears. In a particularly impressive moment, Ayoub wrestles to move a drunken mule who won't budge as troops with rifles converge on his convoy. The power of his fear and frustration lights up the screen.

By the same token, some of the adult actors are unprofessional and wooden. Minor characters, like Ayoub's uncle, are painful to watch as they attempt to act. But thankfully these characters are periphery.

As an artistic film coming from the Middle East, one might not expect much from the technical aspects of the film. The cinematography, however, rivals some of the slickest Hollywood productions. The sweeping ice-blue snow that lines the mountains in the film provides a stark contrast with the characters' bright costumes, particularly Madi's trademark, tiny yellow raincoat.

The textured sound design adds depth to the picture. The rich, crisp amplification of even the tiniest sounds are an example of the film's attention to detail. From the buttoning of a coat to the smacking of lips, small sounds stand out and give the film an intimate feel.

The film derives its title from the mules that are given alcohol so they'll traverse the snowy terrain.

At the end of the film, when Ayoub is trying to get Madi across the border, the drunken mules turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

And the ambiguous final shot will make you cringe.

Briskly paced, the film unearths beauty in simplicity. Ghobadi clearly is a talented director, and in this film about growing up too fast he paints a beautiful, sad picture.



- Worthwhile film ... one ill-judged sentimental flourish

Neorealism can never be GREAT cinema - but then, directors like Ghobadi, at their best, aren't primarily interested in creating great cinema. They want to show us other people's lives. It's worthwhile when it succeeds, and it succeeds here. There's a bracing purity of purpose: clean, fresh images (the hand-held camera work getting in the way only once) of real people. But something gets in the way...

Ayoub's three-year-old brother Madi needs an operation within four weeks. Without it he will die. With it, he will live for at most eight months, and then die anyway. He cannot be cured.

THAT'S what drives Ayoub - and I wish it had been something else. I wish it hadn't been impressed so heavily upon us that the POINT of this dangerous crossing and re-crossing of the Iran/Iraq border is to save Madi's life. It's a flimsy point. Madi can't be leading a happy life (he's deformed, he requires constant medication, he looks like he's suffering - indeed, Ayoub says at one point that Madi was "in pain all night"), and there's no chance, NO chance, that Madi will reach adulthood, or even the age of five. To be blunt: the operation isn't worth the money it will cost to perform.

Of course, man's (or boy's) quest is his own. If Ayoub wants to pursue this particular quixotic project, good luck to him. But it doesn't make much emotional sense to me. We never see what Madi means to Ayoub. We know that Madi isn't all Ayoub has left in the world: he has two sisters, and even if the elder one is to be married off by their uncle and never heard from again, Ayoub clearly also loves his youngest sister - and he doesn't seem to have lost hope in himself. Deciding to sacrifice so much to briefly prolong the painful life of someone he knows to be doomed anyway, strikes me as unworthy of him. No doubt many people will think that he MUST do so, because any human life is always worth more than any amount of money, etc. But it's rich people who think like this. Deep down even they know it isn't really true. The money Ayoub plans to spend on Madi's operation could easily turn out to have been the only thing that could have saved him or his sister from starvation. Or slavery.




- Extremely moving regarding the children, but also the mules

I have found that the Iranian movies are deeply moving. I also enjoyed "The Color of Paradise". The director seems to get "real people" to act out the parts. It seems so realistic that it becomes a documentary. I believe it was either nominated for Oscar for best foreign movie or actually won it. I am not sure - perhaps someone will tell me !

Wonderful movie !



- The gap between life and film......

I don't know where to begin to comment about this incredible movie.

First of all.....what has happened to these children? I realize this is a movie but these were real kids and the child that needed the operation was not acting......Do they have parents? Can the film makers be reached?

This unique film bridges the gap between life and film. It haunts me.

It makes "movie star" movies look even more superficial and empty.



- Astounding!

This is one of the most astounding movies I have ever seen! I knew nothing at all about the movie before I went to see it, other than that it was Kurdish and "very good". So at first I thought it was a documentary, so well acted was it by the young, unprofessional cast. No doubt this impression was enforced by much hand-held camera footage: the scenes of Kurdish smugglers fighting on the Iran/Iraq border just HAD to be real!

Visually it is stunning in an horrific, bleak & beautiful sort of way. I was reminded in parts of certain aspects of the vision of Werner Herzog, in regard to the long treks through vistas of unending Snow & Rock. I literally started to shiver sitting there in the cinema!

The plight of the brave Kurdish children is heart-rending and at the same time heartening; their great strength and inherent nobility gob-smacked this old Western decadent! It is still hard to sift the reality of their experiences from the fiction of the story as portrayed in this movie. None of the cast are professional actors, I gather, by the fact that they all used their real names.

And there aint no trite and "Disney" conclusion to this provoking visit to an inverted Shangri-La: this movie bites!

Do yourself a favour: see it!



Directed by
Bahman Ghobadi

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Bahman Ghobadi

Cast (in credits order)
Ayoub Ahmadi .... Ayoub
Rojin Younessi .... Rojin
Amaneh Ekhtiar-dini .... Ameneh
Madi Ekhtiar-dini .... Madi
Kolsolum Ekhtiar-dini
Karim Ekhtiar-dini
Rahman Salehi
Osman Karimi
Nezhad Ekhtiar-dini



Also Known As:
Time for Drunken Horses, A (2000) (International: English title)
Runtime: 80 min / Argentina:85 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival)
Country: Iran
Language: Persian / Kurdish with English subtitles
Color: Color