»Half Moon«

One final journey for the music

The journey in »Half Moon« begins in a Kurdish mountain village in northern Iran: shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Mamo, a famous, aging singer, is finally allowed to travel to Erbil in northern Iraq for a concert. He rounds up his ten sons, who had accompanied him as an orchestra in the past, and climbs on board a rickety bus with them. Against the breath-taking backdrop of snow-capped peaks and rugged cliffs, we follow the party – which is at times in good spirits and at other times tends to quarrel – past deserted villages. Their first stop is a remote village to which 1,334 female singers have fled to escape the ban on performing in Iran. Mamo persuades the singer Hesho to join them, even though she will have to hide when they get to the border – but Mamo is reluctant to perform without a female singer. Will they make it all the way to Erbil together and fulfil Mamo’s wish of giving a grand concert? With this difficult odyssey, director Bahman Ghobadi not only paints a vivid portrait of his protagonists, but also reveals the brutal reality of the Kurdish battle for identity and culture, which is fought between repression and the national borders that dissect their cultural region. The film music is by Hossein Alizadeh, one of Iran’s best-known artists and composers. For those who, after the film, would like to experience the great Kurdish singing tradition live, the »Danuk« concert on 18 November is highly recommended. Drawing inspiration from 100-year-old recordings of Kurdish priest chants and shepherd and wedding songs, the ensemble has composed songs of their own about their Syrian homeland that transcend musical and political boundaries.