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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — As a real-life Game of Thrones plays out between ISIS and its enemies in Iraq, a Kurdish filmmaker has been showing the most-viewed television show in history at his cinema café, aiming to add to the capital of the Kurdistan Region's cultural scene.
Tucked upstairs in an Erbil hotel, a cozy restaurant and lounge displays Kurdish and foreign films, but has recently become a hot spot for weekly Game of Thrones watch parties.
"Three months ago I arrived here and had no idea what Iraq would be like. But then coming here, I saw the life," said Ateeq Bashir after watching last week’s episode.
The man from Pakistan who works in the humanitarian sector with IDPs said most in his homeland do not realize the differences between Kurdistan and Iraq, which they see as a war-zone.
"It shows the resilience of locals here," he said, adding that Kurdistan is a "free, liberal non-conservative society and peaceful environment."
The café is more than just a cinema with its live performances and various awareness events.
A Kurdish businessman from Duhok who lived in the United Kingdom for 35 years loved last week’s “cliff-hanger” of an episode with a dragon spitting fire at knight. He was not concerned about remaining pockets of ISIS just outside of the Kurdistan Region.
"For me it's perfectly normal because I've been here for six years now. Even in the hairy times with ISIS, we still went out, we still did our thing … things seemed to be safer here than in the UK,” Azad Barmani said, referring to the period of late 2013 and early 2014.
However, now “Kurdistan is open to tourists and different than Iraq,” he added. “More people should come visit.”
He believes to storyline of Games of Thrones has parallels with the United Kingdom — Southerners and Northerners, royalty and common folk, and the power struggle. But overall the watch party is an hour of escape from the daily grind.
“Who doesn’t love dragons on big screens?” he said. “Plus it gets you out of the house.”
The establishment's owner, Jano Rosebiani, was raised in Zakho and spent much of his life in the United States. He, himself, a filmmaker, was inspired to provide a creative space for the film and arts in the Kurdistan Region’s capital city when he returned to his homeland in 2014.
“The idea of a place like this was always in my mind,” Rosebiani said who says the first time he was able to visit Kurdistan was in 1991 after the Gulf War. “There were chaikhana (tea houses) all over, but there weren’t places like this.”
It is modeled after Cinema Nova, which was one of his favorite bars in Belgium because they showed art, films, and documentaries.
Kurdish filmmaker and cinema owner Jano Rosebiani is from Zakho. Photo: Furnished
Rosebiani could have chosen what many people consider to be the cultural mecca of the Kurdistan Region, Sulaimani, or Ainkawa, the Christian area of Erbil, but he believes residents in the capital city do thirst for cultural spots.
“I wanted it to be at a place where there was easy access to expats,” Rosebiani said, explaining that there is a good mix of locals with the primarily foreigner crowd.
He regularly shows Kurdish and non-English foreign films which are subtitled.
“A lot of Kurdish intellectuals come,” Rosebiani explained. “It’s not for everybody. For example the type of music I play, the kind of movies I show are ‘arts’ — non-commercial.”
The filmmaker admitted that showing the HBO series that now has a $100 million per season production budget has been a good way to get publicity and people in the doors.
Game of Thrones, now in its seventh season, has been watched by more people than any other program in the history of television programming, according to the US-based market researcher Nielsen.
Jano’s Cinema Café has watch parties at Capitol Hotel on Gulan Street every Tuesday at 8 p.m. Entrance is free.
“Originally, I was showing films every night,” Rosebiani explained. “Also, we’ve started doing non-film things like Salsa dancing lessons, open-mic night, and karaoke. We do all kinds of things. I’m pretty much open to everything.
“I’m open to films that stimulate the minds.”
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