Winterland

Although I had never heard of Hisham Zaman before, I attended a screening of two of his short films in the University auditorium, Bawke and Winterland. Luckily they were subtitled in English as the dialogue was in Norwegian and Kurdish. FABULOUS! And it was especially interesting to watch them with the Kurdish audience. Winterland tells the story of a man, Renas, who lives in an isolated, cold and bleak part of Norway (looks a lot like my mom's hometown in New Brunswick... even down to the shipping-news-like house). The story opens with him leaving his house to answer the phone ringing in the phone booth in his backyard - one of his parents... who incidentally call everyday to give advice. He, with the help of his family (via the phone), decides to marry a Kurdish girl whose photograph he has fallen in love with. She arrives and it is clear that for both, expectations have been less than met. There are some great comedic moments as the pair learn to make the best of what life has dealt. The crowd cheered as the Kurdish wedding procession (cars blasting Kurdish music with people hanging out the windows, whopping and waving scarves) winds its way down the icy Norwegian country road. However, it was really clear that the audience is mostly familiar with the Hollywood mainstream genre of film... and unused to deciphering symbolism. Why was the hero of the story so old. Don't you think it would have been better if he was young and handsome? Why did the couple destroy the phone booth at the end of the movie instead of just walking away? were just a couple of the questions asked.