Half Moon
Half Moon is the story of the journey. Mamo, a renowned and admired old Kurdish singer is heading to Iraqi Kurdistan along with ten of his sons in order to perform a concert after years of silence. They are invited to travel to Iraqi Kurdistan so that they can perform a music concert for the very first time after the fall of Saddam Hussein's government.
Mamo's music is composed through the essence of a woman's voice. Mamo intends to take the woman singer along with his music group on the trip. They wait seven months to obtain an authorization for the woman's presence and cooperation in their music group. However given that women's singing in Iran is forbidden, they are obliged to make the trip illegally ...
Halfmoon has moments of magic, celebratory music (often sung by women) and makes use of the haunting landscapes of Kurdish Iran. At the same time, it's a film that is unafraid to approach the contemporary realities of the region, but with irony and dark wit.
New Crowned Hope Festival
The Requiem was the path that lead me to do this film. During writing and production I kept thinking about both Mozart and Mamo's death. The Requiem has for me a very close feeling to Kurdistan's landscape. I hope I have fulfilled my dream and brought Mamo's spirit close to Mozart.
Bahman Ghobadi
This film is part of the New Crowned Hope Festival produced by Wiener Festwochen Vienna Mozart Year 2006.
Bahman Ghobadi was born in Baneh, province of Kurdistan in Iran in 1969. In 1992 he moved to Tehran to begin studying film. Ghobadi began his working career in the field of industrial photography while shooting short films on 8mm and on video. Between 1995 and 1999 his short films earned him numerous domestic and international awards and opened up new opportunities for him. In 1999, he worked as an assistant director for Abbas Kiarostami and went on to shoot his first feature-length film A Time for Drunken Horses, which was awarded the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and established him as one of the most promising and interesting directors of Iranian cinema.
Filmography:
1999 Zendegi dar meh/ Life in Fog (kr.m., dok.)
2000 Zamani barayé masti asbha/ A Time for Drunken Horses
2002 Gomgashtei dar Aragh/ Marooned in Iraq
2003 Daf (kr.m., dok.)
2004 Lakposhtha hâm parvaz mikonand/ Turtles Can Fly
2006 Niwemang/ Half Moon