Half Moon

Half Moon is Bahman Ghobadi’s sequel to Marooned in Iraq. This time he has Moma, a great Kurdish musician, travel to Iraq to give a concert in the Kurdish part. Moma ignores the prediction that something will happen to him before half moon. He arranges a bus and leaves. The dream lures him on.
Before the time comes, he has to pick up his ten sons who live scattered through Iranian Kurdistan. It turns into a barren journey along the borders of Iraq, Iran and Turkey. A journey that symbolises the fragile and unpredictable fate the Kurds have had to live with for so long. On his journey, Moma meets a mysterious young singer, without whom he cannot continue on his way. He has to hide her, because in Iran women are not allowed to sing in front of men.
Ghobadi opens many registers. This time they are beautifully finished scenes with dialogues played out in full filled with melodramatic irony, faith and superstition. Half Moon is an entertaining comedy full of incontestable energy that retains a convincing acid undertone against the backdrop of a stunningly beautiful landscape. Ghobadi has an eye for both an effective physical mise-en-scène and metaphysical enchantment. It is the enigmatic young female singer who finally rescues Moma from his impossible journey. (SdH)