Before Snowfall

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Audience Member Siyar, a village boy from the Iraqian parts of Kurdistan follows his sisters steps all the way to Oslo to get in touch wither her. He makes friends and enemies along his way crossing borders, and Evin, a girl dressed as a boy, that lives of stealing stuff from people on the street, become especially close to him. Togheter they continue the long run. She wants to get back together with her dad in Berlin, Siylar want's to kill his own sister to restore the honor of his family as she flees her arranged wedding. This road movie is soemthing else. It's realistic and rather bleek to be rated twelve years plus. It's also very nicely photographed as it looks very good. Some scenes have amazing shots like the gunfire scene at the hills and that slow pan shot in the room in Berlin. OK performances and a neat soundtrack makes it a good film, from a director that was only 35 when he did this film. I don't miss much, but it lackd some true emotions, and the pace seem a bit slow at times, but the mixture of society values and culture versus humanity stands strong. 6.5 out of 10 apples. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Title: Surprising road movie passing a variety of cities and landscapes, driven forward by an Iraqi-Kurdistan village boy to kill his sister who fled from an arranged wedding Saw this at the Noordelijk film festival 2014 in Leeuwarden (The Netherlands). Surprising road movie (usually I don't like road movies, but this was different) that worked as a guided tour through very many very different countries and cities. Also surprising was the stubbornness of Siyar. He had just a single purpose in mind, namely to kill his sister, only because the family's honor was at stake. According to his logic and his tribal background rooted in ancient traditions, he "must" do this. The journey brings him (and us) on a variety of places thereby using a variety of vehicles. That "variety" is perfectly illustrated in the opening scene, showing him wrapped up in plastic and being hidden in an oil tank, to get him smuggled across the Turkish border. But that is just the beginning... The Q&A after the screening revealed some interesting details: The director explained that he wanted to make a movie like this for a long time. He just needed a compelling reason for traveling over such a distance. The first reason was found in the enormous personal drive that stopped at nothing, just as we saw here demonstrated, coming forth from ancient traditions and tribal morals. Secondly, he met some people from a village like we saw, after which it suddenly appeared to him that an honor killing quest was the perfect carrier for this journey, providing for aforementioned personal drive. By the way: the "villagers" we saw did not live there anymore, but became wealthy and moved to the city. For this film they got appropriate costumes and came back to the village where they were born, to appear in this movie and provide for the necessary local folkloric environment. In conclusion, very glad to have seen this one. The festival visitors found likewise, and rewarded an above average score of 9.2. As a result, this movie ranked 2nd (out of 64). Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Audience Member An average watch at the Kolkata Film Festival 2014. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member A young man sets out to execute the honor killing of his sister who fled an arranged marriage. Pursuing her across a continent, and befriending a homeless girl who joins, but does not support, his quest, his horizons gradually broaden. But enough to alter his course? The movie ultimately drives home the moral that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member Zaman takes it slow and tries to explore his characters. He never fully delivers though; the conflicts are artificial and do not stem from obvious character tension. The plot is somewhat railroaded, but since the main focus of the movie is on a nation and its traditions, not on what the main character is actually doing, it still works. The editing is sub-par, but the cinematography and wide landscape shots are breathtaking. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Audience Member http://www.latinospost.com/articles/17572/20130426/before-snowfall-movie-review-powerful-portrait-self-discovery-damning-cultural.htm Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Before Snowfall

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