From the dramatic widescreen shots of a lone figure walking across a desert that open the film to its final, heartbreaking, close-up images, Son of Babylon (2009) had me enraptured throughout.
Son of Babylon is set in 2003, in the immediate aftermath of Saddam Hussein’s fall, and tells the story of a Kurdish grandmother and the search for her son, Ibrahim, a soldier missing since the Gulf War in 1991. A letter from a fellow soldier informs her that he had been arrested and was held in Nasiriyah prison, so twelve years later she sets out with her grandson, Ahmed, on the long journey from the Kurdistan region in the north to Babylon in the south.
On the way, they encounter various characters, experience small acts of kindness from ordinary people and survive some near mishaps. In one heart stopping moment, when a Baghdad bus drives off with Ahmed inside and the grandmother running behind,...
Son of Babylon is set in 2003, in the immediate aftermath of Saddam Hussein’s fall, and tells the story of a Kurdish grandmother and the search for her son, Ibrahim, a soldier missing since the Gulf War in 1991. A letter from a fellow soldier informs her that he had been arrested and was held in Nasiriyah prison, so twelve years later she sets out with her grandson, Ahmed, on the long journey from the Kurdistan region in the north to Babylon in the south.
On the way, they encounter various characters, experience small acts of kindness from ordinary people and survive some near mishaps. In one heart stopping moment, when a Baghdad bus drives off with Ahmed inside and the grandmother running behind,...
- 2/13/2011
- by Daniel Green
- CineVue
True Grit (15)
(Joel & Ethan Coen, 2010, Us) Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper. 110 mins
The Coens surprise everyone by not making a Coens movie, but their celebrated attention to dialogue, landscape, casting, period detail and just about every other aspect of film-making gets this well past the "why are you even doing this?" point. Steinfeld's smart-mouthed little avenger and Bridges's un-Wayneish old buzzard share our sympathies, as well as the all-important Grit, and even if the result is almost a straightahead western, it's a superior one.
Never Let Me Go (12A)
(Mark Romanek, 2010, UK/Us) Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley. 104 mins
With a top cast and a story that's not about royals, it's a shame this bold, new Britpic is so depressing. The setting is a boarding school in an alternative Britain (best not to spoil the twist – the movie does that itself), where three friends struggle against the status quo,...
(Joel & Ethan Coen, 2010, Us) Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper. 110 mins
The Coens surprise everyone by not making a Coens movie, but their celebrated attention to dialogue, landscape, casting, period detail and just about every other aspect of film-making gets this well past the "why are you even doing this?" point. Steinfeld's smart-mouthed little avenger and Bridges's un-Wayneish old buzzard share our sympathies, as well as the all-important Grit, and even if the result is almost a straightahead western, it's a superior one.
Never Let Me Go (12A)
(Mark Romanek, 2010, UK/Us) Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley. 104 mins
With a top cast and a story that's not about royals, it's a shame this bold, new Britpic is so depressing. The setting is a boarding school in an alternative Britain (best not to spoil the twist – the movie does that itself), where three friends struggle against the status quo,...
- 2/12/2011
- by The Guide
- The Guardian - Film News
Film-making was a lost art in Iraq, until Mohamed Al-Daradji set about making an epic road movie. He tells Kate Connolly how difficult it was, and its significance to everyone involved
Yasser Talib squirms in his seat. It is the 12-year-old's first visit to a cinema, and he is writhing with embarrassment. "He didn't tell me he was going to show me in my underpants. And they look so childish!" he says. His pain is focused on his friend and mentor, director Mohamed Al-Daradji, whose film Son of Babylon shows Yasser, who plays a boy called Ahmed, being dressed up in a smart shirt and trousers by his grandmother in anticipation of a reunion with his long-lost father. They set off in search of Ahmed's father three weeks after the fall of Saddam in April 2003, and their journey, from the mountains of Kurdistan in the north to the sandy ruins of Babylon in the south,...
Yasser Talib squirms in his seat. It is the 12-year-old's first visit to a cinema, and he is writhing with embarrassment. "He didn't tell me he was going to show me in my underpants. And they look so childish!" he says. His pain is focused on his friend and mentor, director Mohamed Al-Daradji, whose film Son of Babylon shows Yasser, who plays a boy called Ahmed, being dressed up in a smart shirt and trousers by his grandmother in anticipation of a reunion with his long-lost father. They set off in search of Ahmed's father three weeks after the fall of Saddam in April 2003, and their journey, from the mountains of Kurdistan in the north to the sandy ruins of Babylon in the south,...
- 2/4/2011
- by Kate Connolly
- The Guardian - Film News
Iraq's foreign-language Oscar entry "Son of Babylon" has been picked up by Luis Angel Bellaba's Aquelarre which has won all Spanish rights to Mohamed al-Daradji's film. The story of a two-year-old Kurdish boy's odyssey across Iraq with his grandmother, in order to try find his father. Starring are Shazada Hussein and Yasser Talib. U.K. company Human Film produced the film alongside Iraq-al-Rafidian and French company Crm-114. "Babylon" won top honors at the Seville European Film Festival (Seff) this past November...
- 12/30/2010
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Iraq's foreign-language Oscar entry "Son of Babylon" has been picked up by Luis Angel Bellaba's Aquelarre which has won all Spanish rights to Mohamed al-Daradji's film. The story of a two-year-old Kurdish boy's odyssey across Iraq with his grandmother, in order to try find his father. Starring are Shazada Hussein and Yasser Talib. U.K. company Human Film produced the film alongside Iraq-al-Rafidian and French company Crm-114. "Babylon" won top honors at the Seville European Film Festival (Seff) this past November...
- 12/30/2010
- Upcoming-Movies.com
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