Bahman Ghobadi’s third feature follows the musical journey of Mamo, a Kurdish musician who has been given permission to perform a concert in Iraqi Kurdistan.
He is convinced that the essence of the upcoming festival is the voice of a woman, Hesho – but as women are forbidden to sing in front of women in public, she must be carefully concealed from view.
A majestic landscape and a sense of premonition pervade a journey informed by experiences of oppression, adventure and the transcendent power of music, set against the wider backdrop of Saddam Hussein’s dramatic fall from power.
