Renowned old musician Mamo has been granted permission to perform a concert in Iraqi Kurdistan. His friend Kako will drive a school bus and help gather together Mamo's ten musical sons, scattered throughout Iranian Kurdistan. Mamo is determined to make this trip across the majestic landscape despite all obstacles. The old Kurdish musician has waited some 35 years for the chance to perform freely again in Iraqi Kurdistan. Mamo even ignores his son's premonition that something awful awaits him before the next full moon. Mamo is convinced that the essence of the upcoming performance is the celestial voice of a woman, Hesho, who lives in a mountain retreat with 1334 other exiled female singers. Mamo must persuade her to join them, because her self-confidence and voice have been weakened by oppression. Since women are forbidden to sing in front of men in public in Iran, Hesho must be carefully concealed in the bus...

Sceneggiatura / Screenplay Bahman Ghobadi
Fotografia (colore) / Photography (colour) Nigel Block, Crighton Bone
Montaggio / Editing Hayedeh Safiyari
Musica / Music Hossein Alizadeh
Suono / Sound Bahman Ardalan
Interpreti / Cast Ismail Ghaffari, Allah Morad Rashtiani, Hedye Tehrani
Direttore artistico / Art director Mansooreh Yazdanjoo, Bahman Gobadi
Trucco / Make-up Mehrdad Mirkiani
Produzione / Production MIJ Film, Silkroad Production
Anno di produzione / Year of production 2006
Durata / Running time 113’
Formato / Format 35mm

Bahman Ghoadi

Born in 1969 in Baneh, Iran, after studying film in Tehran he worked in the field of industrial photography and began to shot his first short films on 8mm and on video. The short films shot between 1995 and 1999, like God's Fish, Again Rain With the Melody, This Man Has Arrived, Life in Fog, earned him numerous awards. 1999 he worked as an assistant director for Abbas Kiarostami and went on to shoot his first feature, A Time for Drunken Horses, awarded with the Camera D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. 2002 he made his second feature, Songs of My Motherland (aka Marooned in Iraq). His third feature, Turtles Can Fly (2004), was awarded with the Golden Seashell of the San Sebastian International Film Festival.