"Bekas" is the newest movie from writer-director Karzan Kader and it took quite a while till it came to Germany, but it was worth the wait. It is his second full feature film and judging from how young he looks on his profile picture, he may have a bright future ahead of him. Anyway, this film plays in Kurdistan in the early 1990s. Despite what you could think now, it is not all about the political background. Not at all. Actually, most of it is not even included and that is a good thing as this is really more of a road movie centered on two orphan boys, who want to see the newest Superman movie, when it opens in cinemas in Iraq. They get to watch it illegally. No I'm not talking about file-sharing, just about finding a way to watch without paying. That's how things worked 20 years ago.
Anyway, from that moment on, they plan on going to America to find Superman, so he can bring back their parents. My theater classified it as a children's movie and I can see why, although there are some heavier scenes like the one near the end with the mine. The heart and soul of the film really is (apart from Michael Jackson obviously) the younger boy and how he likes being called "my boy", but the older was good too and so were pretty much all the supporting characters that were written in an interesting fashion. The only part I wasn't too fond of was the story with the girl who played the love interest to the older boy. However, it was not so bad that it destroyed everything else. They just could have done without it.
Kader did a nice job with the ending too. It was clear there's no way they could manage to get to America, so he had to find another way to make it a true happy ending despite the main goal remaining unachieved and he succeeded. The many references to America (Superman, Michael Jackson...) could have turned ridiculous at some point, but it all works out well thanks to clever writing. This film has humor, heart and also some nice music. I really liked the scene were the two main characters meet again that involves Coca Cola. Definitely worth a watch.
Anyway, from that moment on, they plan on going to America to find Superman, so he can bring back their parents. My theater classified it as a children's movie and I can see why, although there are some heavier scenes like the one near the end with the mine. The heart and soul of the film really is (apart from Michael Jackson obviously) the younger boy and how he likes being called "my boy", but the older was good too and so were pretty much all the supporting characters that were written in an interesting fashion. The only part I wasn't too fond of was the story with the girl who played the love interest to the older boy. However, it was not so bad that it destroyed everything else. They just could have done without it.
Kader did a nice job with the ending too. It was clear there's no way they could manage to get to America, so he had to find another way to make it a true happy ending despite the main goal remaining unachieved and he succeeded. The many references to America (Superman, Michael Jackson...) could have turned ridiculous at some point, but it all works out well thanks to clever writing. This film has humor, heart and also some nice music. I really liked the scene were the two main characters meet again that involves Coca Cola. Definitely worth a watch.