Set in Kurdistan in the early 1990s, the film tells the story of Dana and Zana (Zamand and Sarwar), two young orphans who naively hope to travel to America, where Superman lives. That they undertake their odyssey on the back of a donkey unceremoniously named Michael Jackson is telling of the naive humour that permeates the film, and is its strongest suit.
If you`re hoping for a serious-minded discussion of the constant turmoil in the Middle East, you may well have to look elsewhere. Like Wes Anderson`s Moonrise Kingdom or Danny Boyle`s Slumdog Millionaire, Karzan`s Bekas is presented through the lens of a child-like rationality, with a focus on the intimate rather than the geopolitical. The film itself is beautifully shot, with a constant magic-hour lighting that serves to underline its near-fantastical nature.
Inherently, there is a fable-like quality to the world presented to us by Bekas: elements of reality are presented sans their inherent unpredictability and danger, and the humour in the script is best appreciated by those who still retain a certain faculty of wonder. The boys venture across borders, encountering danger in the form of land-mines, bayonets and ornery members of Saddam Hussein`s military, but under Karzan`s watchful lens, one never doubts their safety.
This latter point, is, perhaps, the only flaw one could find with Bekas, but also an element crucial to the film`s appeal. It is difficult for one to imagine a film about the Middle East that doesn`t portray it in a serious light, replete with the darker elements of war atrocities. Karzan has, quite courageously, done the contrary; Bekas is about magical thinking rather than gritty reality, a story of hope in a region of conflict.
Summary: A child-like yarn about hope amidst conflict.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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Raphael Lim