VENICE, Italy - The cast and producers of the Oscar-nominated No Paradise If You Are Killed by A Woman are preparing to make their mark at the Venice Film Festival, as the film is set to premiere on Monday. They told Rudaw on Monday that the project aims to leave a Kurdish imprint on one of cinema's most prestigious stages.
Avan Jamal, the lead actress who plays a Kurdish Peshmerga sniper, expressed joy and excitement that as Kurdish people “will be able to see the result of this work, a work made by Kurdish actors, by a Kurdish filmmaker, and see what level it has reached.”
The delegation to Venice comprises the actors, cinematographer and director. Thorbjorn Harr, a Norwegian actor known for his role in the action series Vikings, is notably among the stars of the Kurdish production.
“Of course, I knew about the Peshmerga before [joining the film]. The story about female Peshmerga fighters was discussed in Norway as well, but I didn't know much detail,” Harr told Rudaw. “When the director, Halkawt, explained it to me in depth, I decided to be part of telling this story,” he said.
Meanwhile, the film's cinematographer John-Erling Fredriksen says he intentionally placed a piece of fabric from Kurdish women's traditional attire directly over his camera lens.
“We created a look the world has not seen before. I went to a fabric shop in the bazaar in Erbil and chose this translucent fabric to place behind the lenses to create a soft diffusion,” Fredriksen told Rudaw.
For his part, director Halkawt Mustafa believes the Venice Film Festival's embrace of his film thrusts the Peshmerga and female Peshmerga fighters in particular back into global discourse and under the international spotlight.
“The reason I spent nine years on this film - a work about the Peshmerga - is to reintroduce Kurds and the Peshmerga to the world - [a representation] that ought to be at a high level," Mustafa said.
The film also received a "unanimous vote" to represent Iraq at the festival, the director explained, further noting that all tickets have sold out, with the movie ranking among "the biggest titles in Venice this year.”
