Where to buy:

• Amazon.com

Related links:

• Interview With Karzan Sherabayani
• Return to Kirkuk
• IRR: Return to Kirkuk, By Tim Cleary
• BBK magazine: A life in close-up
• Hollywood.com: Brothers (2005)
• Kristillisdemokraatit: Saddam Husseinin vainoama Karzan Sherabayani palasi 25 vuoden jälkeen Irakiin

Twenty-five years after being bound and tortured by Saddam Husseins secret police force, Kurdish exile, activist, and actor Karzan Sherabayani returns to his hometown of Kirkuk to cast a ballot in the first democratic election since the fall of Husseins regime and filmmaker Claudio von Planta captures every captivating moment of the voyage. By addressing such hot-button issues as whether Iraqi Kurdistan should remain part of Iraq or evolve into an independent nation, von Planta offers a thoughtful meditation on some of the most pressing issues faced by the fledgling Iraqi government.

Original review

Karzan Sherabayani was arrested and almost killed three decades ago when Saddam Hussein’s flunkies picked him up at only 14 years old and only just for being Kurdish.  He was tortured and barely escaped after an ugly deal that set him free.  Return To Kirkuk – A Year In The Fire (2006) is his 90-minute mediation on survival, the exploitation of Iraq, his people, a potential civil war that turned into one and the chaos that continues as this posts over oil, wealth, power and ethnic hatred.

Sherabayani takes us on a very personal journey and shows us Kirkuk as a great place with great people caught in the middle of two religious wars (three factions of Islam, plus Christo-Fascism vs. Islamo-Fascism) plus the desire to gets its oil on the cheap when it should be turning his country into a beacon of democracy in The Middle East to rival others.  But in true Syriana mode, everything people in power can do wrong to keep things as they are and people who deserve better in “their place” as he documents a people to long neglected.

When the Kurds were gassed after the first President Bush told them to rise against Hussein, they got zero support and it was a disaster.  One woman asked who their friends were and why did they not have any friends.  With an ineffective U.N. to boot, it is time for them to get real support that puts them before their oil.  The only question left is if it is too late.  If the will is there among many worldwide, maybe not.

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image was shot in digital video and sometime adds lesser low def analog video here and there.  At its best, there is image shimmering while color and depth are not consistent.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 has simple stereo at best in various languages and despite some flawed location audio, the voiceover narration is good.  There are no extras.

Original review