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Marooned in Iraq
Universal acclaim
Based on 14 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 6 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): War
Written by: Bahman Ghobadi
Directed by: Bahman Ghobadi
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 25, 2003
DVD: October 7, 2003
Running Time: 97 minutes, Color
Origin: Iran
Language(s): Kurdish (with English subtitles)
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Shahab Ebrahimi, Iran Ghobadi, Faegh Mohamadi, and Allah-Morad Rashtian
Set on the Iran-Iraq border in the early 1990s, this film dramatizes the plight of the Kurdish people.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: A Time for Drunken Horses Half Moon Turtles Can Fly
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Director Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
San Francisco Chronicle Jonathan Curiel
Ghobadi infuses his movie with a humor that can almost be called Seinfeldian, and it's this mix of laughter with tears that gives Marooned in Iraq its big impact.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Schickel
You'll have to seek it out in its limited release, but no current movie is more worth the effort.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
A mix of war film, road movie, and romantic comedy-drama, this peripatetic yarn is less resonant than Ghobadi's beautiful "A Time for Drunken Horses," but it has enough energy to keep your eyes popping and your toes tapping.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Nothing I've read about Iraq or seen on TV in the past few weeks has felt nearly as real and intimate as this commanding fiction.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dave Kehr
If Mr. Ghobadi's dominant theme is the devastation of the Kurds, his subdominant tone is one of strength, resistance and fertility.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Mostly, though, it's a film about that hollow feeling that hits you when the tears have all dried up and your face hurts way too much to even crack a smile.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
This lusty, heartfelt movie has a near Brueghelian visual energy and a humanist passion as contagious as its music.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Henry Sheehan
Occurring as it does amid a surge of tragedy and bitterness, its comic effect is powerfully mitigated.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Janice Page
As full of joy as pain, it's a perspective we need to see more often.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
On a miniscule budget, Ghobadi conveys the terror of war, while the beautifully edited sequence in which Iranian villagers make bricks resembles nothing so much as a choreographed dance number.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
Eventually turns somber, with stark depiction of mass graves and suffering refugees. The final scene will break your heart.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
It's part grim Beckett-like drama, part joyous picaresque, and all quite mesmerizing.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Even though the film's tone grows ever more elegiac, it stubbornly remains a celebration of the Kurdish capacity to endure.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Ends with horrific revelations that are made all the more powerful by the lightness that precedes them. Simultaneously sad and hopeful, Ghobadi suggests the resiliency of a culture in which war is part of the fabric of everyday life.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Hasan D. gave it a 10:
Great emotional movie...does not take political stand just expresses the facts in the masscare of Iraqi Kurds while giving images of the lively Kurdish images amid genocide,deaths and harsh weather conditions...definitely must see.....
Chad S. gave it an 8:
"Marooned in Iraq" would benefit greatly by a rethinking of the subtitles. The translator makes these characters sound like simpletons. There are also gaps where no translation is provided. This distraction, however, can't undercut the awesome images of displaced refugees playing "Survivor" for real. The attempts at comedy are a little strained, but the attempts at joy aren't. Happy music is played by the travelin' band to interject some momentary happiness into the lives of some Kurdish orphans. For a little while, they can embrace a beautiful lie before returning to the soundtrack of their lives. A funeral dirge.
Abu S. gave it a 7:
This movie is full of lies but I liked it.
Misha H. gave it an 8:
A great movie!
