BARCELONA, Spain – A child trying to live a normal life in a war zone is what Kurdish director Kae Bahar portrays in his short film, I am Sami. It is a movie about the many “Samis” of the Middle East who have to mature beyond their age in conflicts they cannot understand.
“As a young boy, a child really, Sami has to make decisions way beyond his understanding, decisions that will deprive him of his childhood,” said Bahar, originally from the village of Shoraw in Kirkuk province. “I guess there is some parallel between Sami and myself in this regard.”
His village was one of the first to be razed to the ground by Iraq’s Baath government in 1963, recalled Bahar, who at the age of 19 left for Italy, leaving behind the excruciating experience of torture by the Iraqi secret police at the early age of 14.
“The setting for the film is not specific -- it could be just about any country in the Middle East. I wanted audiences to concentrate on the human elements, the friendship between Sami and the American soldier named Oscar -- two people coming from two different cultures and backgrounds,” Bahar told Rudaw in an interview from the UK, where he has been living since 1993.
The movie conveys the message that love and friendship help people and children survive through wars.
That is why Sami looks happy in the beginning of the movie when the family is together and he has the love of his parents and brother. He also has the friendship of Oscar, an American soldier to whom he innocently and unknowingly provides pornographic movies, earning a bit of money to help his sick father.
“The movie starts with Sami doing sit-ups; it’s a whole statement I wanted to make. This moment in the film is one of my favored ones because it shows Sami trying to live a ‘normal’ life despite the circumstances,” said Bahar.
But Sami’s happy mood changes when his father and brother are violently dragged out of their family home by American soldiers.
I am Sami is a 14-minute short film produced by Footprint Films & Joka Films. It is Bahar’s first professionally produced fiction movie, ahead of his coming feature Blindfold Shoes (www.blindfoldshoes.com), to be shot in Kurdistan in Spring 2015.
“I am Sami was a very ambitious and a challenging short to shoot as a UK/Kurdistan co-production entirely on location in Kurdistan,” said Bahar, who has a BA in Film & Media from the University of London.
“We made it because we had a brilliant team of 16 filmmakers from the UK, joined by some 35 film lovers and crew in Kurdistan. Add to that the love and generosity of the Kurds and the amazing welcoming offered to us in the town of Maxmur, where we shot the film,” he said.
It took Bahar two months and eight towns in Kurdistan to find the boy who plays Sami’s role.
“We were delighted to come across Bawar Landon, who plays Sami, and this was his first ever experience of acting and especially being in a film. He was great, as was the rest of the cast,” Bahar said, adding that apart from Nick Court who plays Oscar, all the other actors are Kurds in their first roles in an English-language film.
The film was only completed at the end of May and so far has been submitted to more than 140 film festivals around the world.
“The initial reactions from the festivals are really encouraging. In the first five film festivals I Am Sami has been nominated for best film twice, best cinematography and best editing, which we won. But the best award for me was to have the film’s first screening at the First Erbil International Film Festival in Kurdistan in June this year,” said Bahar.
“We have had many encouraging reactions from many countries,” he added. “If I can seed something in the heart of the viewer about Kurdistan, I have achieved my goal both as a Kurd and a filmmaker,” he explained.
“Lastly, I do not wish to portray the Kurds as only disabled blinds -- no limbs, no arms and always as helpless victims. My approach is the opposite: I am interested in characters, strong and inspiring characters full of hope. The Kurds have heroes, too!”
Since 1992 and the establishment of a “No Fly Zone” in Iraqi Kurdistan, Bahar has been visiting there regularly to make films and documentaries, some of them broadcasted on the BBC and other major channels.
In Italy, where he arrived at the age of 19, he obtained a degree in architecture and a diploma in acting and did studies in film and TV. Italy is where he played his first acting role professionally, and where he made his first experimental short film in 1987, called Passaporto.
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