ROME FILM FESTIVAL Competition / CH-IT-IQ
The Flowers of Kirkuk looks at genocide and one woman’s courage
The first film shot in Iraq since the beginning of the war in 2003, and also one of the dramatic ones produced in that region, The Flowers of Kirkuk – an Italian/Swiss/Iraqi co-production by Kurdish-Iranian (and now “adopted” Italian) director Fariborz Kamkari screening in Competition at the Rome Film Festival – is the story of an impossible love, and above all a chance to talk about forgotten genocide. In particular, the 1980s massacres by Saddam Hussein’s regime against the Kurds.
As is often the case in films about rebellion and a rigid society (as in Iranian filmmaker Hossein Keshavarz’s Dog Sweat, also at the Rome festival), the protagonist is a woman. Najla (Morjana Alaoui) is a young and passionate doctor who decides, after finishing her studies in Italy, to return to Kirkuk to find her great love, Sherko (Ertem Eser), now fighting in the Resistance. Najla will be forced to choose between her noble ideals and very strict family traditions.
"I wanted to tell the story of a Middle Eastern woman who chooses her own life,” said the director. "I’ve many like her in real life, and they should be respected more".
Kamkari also spoke of his experience working in Iraq: "It was vital that we shoot in the actual places where events took place just a few years ago. There is no film industry in Iraq, it was a challenge. At first, the people there didn’t understand what we were doing, they thought we were crazy. Then, when they realized we were also doing something for them, telling their story, they welcomed us enthusiastically and even collaborated with us".
The first international production made in Iraq and Kurdistan has a western approach, however, Said Kamkari: "The drama, like a dialectical contraposition of perspective, does not belong to Western tradition, which is dominated by a unitary and little-fragmented vision. My aim was to render a Western-style narrative plot through primary Oriental tonalities.” In doing so, the director confessed he was inspired by great films of Italian war, in particular Roberto Rossellini.
Produced by Italy’s FARoutFILMS, in co-production with T & C Films (Switzerland), Oskar (Italy) e Visual K Productions (Iraq), The Flowers of Kirkuk will be released in Italy on November 19 by Medusa Film, while international sales are handled by Adriana Chiesa Enterprises.
(Translated from Italian)
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