Today's Top Stories:
CCSC Combats "Study Day"

In which film savant Iggy Cortez recommends a melodrama with honesty.

Like many Iranian movies, Bahman Ghobadi's beautiful and passionate A Time for Drunken Horses focuses its poignant narrative on children, a device some critics consider excessively manipulative, but which Ghobadi handles with honesty and an admirable restraint. The film follows a family of orphaned Kurdish siblings living in brutal conditions in the border between Iran and Iraq. Ayoub, the film's young hero, and his sisters make back-breaking sacrifices to support each other and their disabled older brother, Madi.

Their already difficult lives take a turn for the worst when a doctor reveals that Madi is critically ill and needs an operation to survive. His siblings become determined to raise the money in whatever way they can — Ameneh, an elder sister, agrees to marry an Iraqi Kurd if they agree to pay for Madi's operation (the groom's family eventually refuses, offering them a donkey they can sell instead). But Ayoub's dangerous struggles form the heart of the film, as he attempts to raise money transporting contraband goods with a group of ineffective smugglers. The film's enigmatic title is also the film's most absurd and potent image, referring to the smugglers' practice of spiking their mules' water with vodka, so they can endure journeys on freezing mine-infested fields and mountains.


About Us

Bwog is compiled by the staff of The Blue and White, Columbia University's undergraduate magazine.

Contact Us

Please send tips to bwgossip@columbia.edu.

Questions or concerns? Email bweditors@columbia.edu.

Bwog is always looking for new writing talent. Email bwog@columbia.edu.

In Print

Search

Comment Policy

Our Favorite Comments

What do you : [read]
"need if you're buying a musical instrument today? A Chopin Liszt!"
just to let you know: [read]
"it will be your significant other breaking up with you (because at other schools, there's actually an..."

Bwogroll

Technical

Our headlines are syndicated through Atom.
This site is powered by the Publicate Content Management System, which is available for free.
Our interface icons are from the free Silk set.