Growing up in Central Europe, I've seen a thousand local movies about poor and naive people chasing the "American Dream", and this is just another one. (Only this time it's a Swedish one with Iraqi kids). The director is trying so hard to create a movie like "Life Is Beautiful" or "Slumdog Millionaire", that it's almost laughable. The characters can't read a map, they think that the USA is beyond the next mountain, and scene-by-scene the film tried harder to make me feel sorry for these kids. But it was so forced, that eventually I couldn't.
The dialogues are quite weird, the actors are actually bad, and one of them is really annoying with his continuous shouting. But to write something positive, the cinematography and the scenery is beautiful, and it sometimes made me forget about the rest of the movie.
Director Karzan Kader basically re-shot his short film (also called "Bekas") from 2010. I mean, literally. The shots, the sets are all the same, only this one is one hour longer. But all for nothing, because the additional story material (e.g. the love interest of one of the characters) just makes it worse. So if you're interested in this one, I'd recommend watching the short film instead, you'll lose nothing.
The dialogues are quite weird, the actors are actually bad, and one of them is really annoying with his continuous shouting. But to write something positive, the cinematography and the scenery is beautiful, and it sometimes made me forget about the rest of the movie.
Director Karzan Kader basically re-shot his short film (also called "Bekas") from 2010. I mean, literally. The shots, the sets are all the same, only this one is one hour longer. But all for nothing, because the additional story material (e.g. the love interest of one of the characters) just makes it worse. So if you're interested in this one, I'd recommend watching the short film instead, you'll lose nothing.