THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – TO SEE
In a village in Iraqi Kurdistan, while the news broadcast on the radio announces a retreat of the Islamic State (IS) organization on all the front lines, another war is raging, this one less deadly, but very tough, to the point of seeming unbreakable. In the battle, only two belligerents, Resul (Barzan Shaswar) and Shero (Bekir Ma’rof), good guys moreover, but stubborn as donkeys, whose mutual hatred dates back to the dawn of time, nourished over the years by anecdotal neighborhood quarrels that the two lads took malicious pleasure in cultivating.
Only, today, the matter is serious, which requires, in each camp, the greatest firmness. Resul and Shero having, this time, the mission of preventing the marriage between Avdal (son of the first) and Ziné (daughter of the second), whose most unfortunate idea, no doubt, was to fall madly in love one another.
Humor provides a safeguard against seriousness and complacency in misfortune
Thus begins – in the mode of farce – Goodnight Soldier, the twelfth feature film by Kurdish filmmaker Hiner Saleem, who returns once again to his native country (left as a teenager) to tell us a love story with Shakespearean resonances. A drama initially kept at a distance by humorous scenes, but which gradually infiltrates the story with majesty and modesty, without sound or fury. Humor is always in ambush at Hiner Saalem. It provides him with a safeguard against seriousness and complacency in the face of misfortune.
The one who strikes the young peshmerga Avdal (Galyar Nerway) and the very beautiful Ziné (Dilîn Döger) pick up lovers in full youth, at the culmination of a happiness they have barely tasted. Above all, it provokes a shock wave which will not only upset the balance of their respective families, but tend to call into question the established order of a society which, despite the revolution, is struggling to emancipate itself from the patriarchal laws and values. This misfortune produces a break in tone, opens up a rift upon contact with which the story is nuanced, the character of the characters is refined. The golden light then gives way to twilight chiaroscuro, gravity draws the faces differently, the frame tightens on the bodies, once full of momentum, now impeded.
Women’s Square
Because, despite the opposition of their parents and their brothers, Avdal and Ziné ended up, by dint of obstinacy and thanks to the intervention of a third party, by winning their case. Reconciled, the two clans devoted themselves to the preparations for the wedding, with fervor and all the more emotion as the young Avdal, who came back injured from his last fight against the soldiers of the IS, almost died. The village paid homage to his heroism, the wedding took place, the newlyweds shared their first night together. which separated them. Avdal having proved powerless preferred to flee. Devastated and in disbelief, Ziné returned to her parents. The time of recklessness has come to an end.
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