A FLAG WITHOUT A COUNTRY

“A Flag Without a Country” (2015) by Bahman Ghobadi is set in Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan and follows two people for whom being Kurdish is a full-time occupation. Nariman Anvar, known as “Nariman the Pilot”, taught himself to fly and runs a flying school; since he survived a crash, parents no longer trust him with their children, so he recruits his students from among children who have fled Syria to escape Islamic State. Meanwhile, the pop singer Helly Luv gathers Kalashnikovs, Kurdish flags and a sedated lion for a music video – and, in the refugee camp near the Syrian border, encounters children who need more than a backdrop. The front line lies a few dozen kilometres from the city.

The Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi works between documentary and staging: real people play themselves in re-enacted situations, the images shift between reportage and the polish of a pop video, and the open ending poses the question of the future of a people without a state. The film screened in Busan and at Sundance, and in 2016 at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin.

Shown at the 2016 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2016 · Film Archive