“All the Mountains Give” by Arash Rakhsha,
November 15 and 21, 2024
Film title: All the Mountains Give
Director: Arash Rakhsha (also cinematographer, editor, and co-producer)
Running time: 91 minutes
In Rojhelat, due to discrimination, many Kurdish people live in poverty. In one Kurdish village, a young Kurdish man, Hamid, wants to leave for Germany, where a friend has found a restaurant job for him. But Hamid must stay in the village after all, to take care of his elderly father who has dementia. Meanwhile his friend Yassir has literary aspirations: he listens to a radio station about Kurdish literature and teaches his wife Kurdish.
But both men, in order to survive, are forced to give up their dreams and join the ranks of kolbars, or those who smuggle household goods (health products, tires, mobile phones, cigarettes) across the deadly border with Iraq. At the starting point, large containers are tied to the backs of the men, who carry them for nine hours, trudging on foot over steep, rocky mountainsides even in the depths of winter. For carrying the 40-kilo loads, they earn a dollar per kilo. Sometimes they use mules. It’s dangerous work—200 kolbars die every year, shot by border guards, or slipping and plunging down a mountainside.
For Hamid and Yassir, small comforts that provide respite from this onerous work: tea and a warm fire, a gleefully trotting yellow dog, a niece’s joyous birthday party, games of backgammon and dominoes, smoking shisha. Even bathing comes as a relief.
The cinematography is lush, reflecting Rakhsha’s expertise in photography. We are shown expanses of mountains, jutting peaks frosted with snow, intimidating rockfaces, snow-bound paths, stepped houses soaring high—all breathtaking. As a contrast with these images of the unforgiving terrain, the director has chosen to use deep darkness for most of the interiors. The domestic action plays out in chiaroscuro, the occasional window admitting a bit of light but also framing the terrain that rule their lives, highlighting its defining force. Through these contrasts, Rakhsha captures the terrible poetry of these bitterly arduous lives
Alert to sensitive viewers: the film includes several scenes from a slaughterhouse.
Arash Rakhsha, born in 1985, Kermanshah, Rojhelat, grew up in a poor family but was encouraged by his father to read great world literature: Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Salinger, and Faulkner. Realizing that storytelling could be a powerful tool that teaches kindness, empathy, and tolerance, he studied dramatic literature at the University of Tehran. While working in a photo agency, he developed a passion for photography. A trusted professor urged him to pursue a degree in cinematography, and he has dedicated himself to the craft ever since. All the Mountains Give is his directorial debut.
All the Mountains Give will be screened twice in New York in November 2024, brought to you by DOCNYC:
Screening 1:
Friday, November 15, 2024, @6:15pm
Location: Village East by Angelika, 181-189 2nd Avenue
A Q&A with the filmmaker and producers will follow the screening
Screening 2:
Thursday, November 21, 2024, @ 9pm
Location: Village East by Angelika, 181-189 2nd Avenue
Virtual Screenings: November 16 to December 1. Watch online from anywhere in the United States.
For tickets, please visit the DOCNYC website.
Praise for the film:
“An atmospheric, eye-opening work matches moments of thriller-like intensity with a warm human touch.”
—Allan Hunter, Screen Daily
“The dirt tracks and rural mountain setting bring to mind Abbas Kiarostami’s The Wind Will Carry Us, while scenes of the kolbars navigating the mountains with their cargo recall Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God.”
—Sophie Kindreich, Snack Magazine
