In a remote Kurdish village on the Iran-Iraq border, five motherless children endure hard scrabble lives, smuggling in order to survive.

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Directed by Bahman Ghobadi
Iran/Kurdistan, 2000, 76 minutes

Winner — Camera d’Or, 2000 Cannes Film Festival

Watch an interview with the director 

Bahman Ghobadi‘s tragic, yet unsentimental first feature is influenced by his own childhood in Iran’s Kurdistan. In a remote Kurdish village on the Iran-Iraq border, five motherless children endure hardscrabble lives, as heavily burdened by responsibility and loss as a smuggler‘s mule. Ayoub (Ayoub Ahmadi) and his young sister, Ameneh (Ameneh Ekhtiar-Dini) work at a bazaar to earn money, while simultaneously caring for their tiny, ill brother, Madi (Mehdi Ekhtiar-Dini), who suffers from a form of dwarfism. When a landmine kills their smuggler father, Ayoub must provide for the family, despite his young age. He joins the smugglers, carrying heavy loads on his back through the snowy mountains toward Iraq, while dodging the constant threat of ambush and mines. Pressure on Ayoub increases as poor Madi’s illness worsens. An operation in Iraq is Madi’s only hope, yet Ayoub’s earnings barely cover the family’s necessities. A possible solution arises when the children’s eldest sister, Rojin (Rojin Younessi) enters an arranged marriage with an Iraqi, who promises to pay for the operation. With its sparse dialogue, rough settings, and intimate view of Kurdish life, Ghobadi‘s first feature film is a simply told and very powerful tale.

“The movie is brief, spare and heartbreaking... A Time for Drunken Horses has the same kind of conviction as movies like The Bicycle Thief, Salaam Bombay and Pixote - movies that look unblinkingly at desperate lives on the margin.”

- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Both broadcasts followed by Peter Scarlet’s interview with director Bahman Ghobadi in Erbil, Iraq.

About CINEMONDO:

Link TV's CINEMONDO is a nationally broadcast, ground breaking world cinema series hosted and co-curated by Peter Scarlet, Artistic Director, Tribeca Film Festival (2003-2008), now Executive Director of the Middle East International Film Festival. CINEMONDO brings international cinema with great artistic, cultural and political value to the living rooms of Link TV’s American audiences.