Kilometer zero

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Movie
German title Kilometer zero
Original title Kilometer zero
Country of production France , Iraq , Finland
original language Kurdish
Publishing year 2005
length 91 minutes
Rod
Director Hiner Saleem
script Hiner Saleem
production Emilie Georges
music Nikos Kypourgos
Yan Axin
camera Robert Alazraki
cut Anna Ruiz
occupation

Kilomètre zéro is an Iraqi / Kurdish film from 2005. The name comes from the Romansh-speaking area and means “ fundamental point ”, hence the point of a country from which all distances are measured. The film was shot and written by Hiner Saleem . Kilomètre zéro is the first Iraqi film to participate in the Cannes Film Festival .

action

The film is about the electrician Ako from Amediye - a Kurd who was forced to go to the front as a soldier during the Iran-Iraq war in 1988. The action takes place a few days before the poison gas attack on Halabja in March 1988. He and his friends Sami and Adnan, among others , are transferred to the front in Basra . There Ako only thinks of returning to his homeland. He wants to have his leg shot in several attacks by the Iranians in order to be able to return as an invalid veteran. But the opportunity to return home arises when Ako has to drive the body of a fallen soldier to his home in Zaxo in the north of the country. However, the journey is not so easy because the other driver is an Arab with antipathy towards the Kurds. Most of the time the two don't talk. When the driver tries to open a conversation and says that he has done his military service in the Kurdish northern Iraq , Ako asks him how many Kurds he had shot. Both openly admit that they want to kill the other if they can.

The drive is long, through arid plains and deserts, interrupted by frequent military checkpoints. At each of the controls, the two of them are told not to drive through the towns in daylight so as not to deteriorate the morale of the residents by the sight of the coffins. At a rest stop, Ako learns that his friend Sami is dead. When he arrives in Zaxo, Ako tells the driver that the dead man's family has moved to Akrê and persuades him to continue. Later the driver leaves him alone with the coffin and runs away on the pretext of wanting to get some food. Ako escapes and manages to bring his family to the Iraqi-Turkish border . He leaves the country with them and fled to France .

Awards

The film was nominated for two awards, the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Ear of Gold at the Valladolid Film Festival .

Trivia

In several scenes you can see a transporter driving a Saddam Hussein statue back and forth across the country.

Web links