Herman

A Kurdish film in Santa Barbara Film Festival

Length: 1 hour, 24 minutes

Directed by: Hussein Hassan

Released: 2009 Iraq

 

Just weeks before the Anfal campaign of 1988 two Kurdish lovers, Herman and Adar, come close to achieving their dreams of marriage but are forcibly separated due to unavoidable circumstances.. When the young man, Herman goes to his fiancé's village to meet her he finds it demolished by Saddam's Iraqi army and Adar is long gone. As he searches, we discover that she and her village escaped have fled to the Turkish border seeking refuge but here are faced only with more brutality and herded into camps with no basic needs.

What ensues isthe break down of a family and a community torn by war and by tradition. When values and honor are threatened, we get a rare glimpse of cultural divides; of a political situation that threatens an ethnic group's fight for independence, and the repressive beliefs about women's chastity within a simple, heart wrenching story. These themes are woven into a powerful tale in HERMAN.

 

Friday, Feb. 12th at 7:30 Pm