Rhino Season

The Iranian-Kurdish poet Sahel and his wife Mina were wrongly arrested during the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Sahel spent 30 years in prison, while Mina, convinced that her husband was dead, fled to Turkey with her two children. Two lovers driven in part by a political injustice and a personal vendetta.
The Iranian-Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi, who won the IFFR audience award in 2005 with Turtles Can Fly, based Rhino Season on the diaries of his friend, the Kurdish poet Sadeh Kamangar.
His earlier work was characterised by an almost documentary approach. In the meantime, Ghobadi has developed into a poetic and lyrical storyteller, and the non-actors from his earlier films have made way for an impressive cast, including Monica Belucci and Iranian star Behrooz Vossoughi.
Ghobadi no longer makes films in Iran. Rhino Season is the first film he made abroad; the film was shot entirely in Turkey.