Kilometre Zero (tbc)
- Run time: 1 hour 36 mins
- Language: Kurdish
- Genre: Drama
- Release date: 1st January 2005
- Starring: Nazmi Kirik, Eyam Ekrem, Belcim Bilgin
- Directed by: Haner Saleem
Plot Synopsis
Iraq, 1988. Young husband and father Ako is sent to the frontline of the Iran-Iraq War, where he experiences not only the reality of war, but also abuse due to his Kurdish background.
When he receives orders to escort the return of a fellow soldier's corpse to his family, Ako sees it as his ticket home, but his driver turns out to be an anti-Kurd Arab. Saddam Hussein's genocide of Iraq's Kurdish population hangs over the spare narrative of the film like an axe ever about to fall on the neck of Ako.
Writer-director Hiner Saleem uses the same simple, effective but stretched-out storytelling as in his much-praised Vodka Lemon. Much milder, though no less tragic, than the work of Iran's Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi, Saleem's picture tells another part of the same horrible story without being depressing or shocking.