BLINDFOLD SHOES: The First Kurdish Feature Film in English
Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 5:12 pmLONDON, England—As cinema feature film producers based in London – and as the producers of writer/director Kae Bahar’s 2014 Kurdish feature film BLINDFOLD SHOES - we set off in late July for our first visit to Kurdistan with the concerns of friends and families ringing in our ears. ‘Isn’t Kurdistan in Iraq?’ ‘Won’t it be dangerous?’ ‘Isn’t that going to be a very difficult place to make a film?’ It wasn’t the first time we’ve been asked these questions.
Our last feature film, Africa United, was the fictional story of three children from Rwanda who walk an impossible 3000-mile journey to the football World Cup in South Africa. Rather than make somewhere else look like Rwanda, we shot the film in Rwanda, nearby neighbour Burundi, and South Africa, all three countries having had their share of trouble and unrest. So, for us, Kurdistan was just another adventure, even if we didn’t completely know what to expect.
Never again will we complain about England when the thermometer occasionally hits the thirty degree mark; landing in Kurdistan to find temperatures of fifty plus degrees, we now know that England rarely gets more than mildly warm – Kurdistan gets hot. But, the warmth of the sun was matched by the warmth of the Kurdish welcome. Everywhere we went, our hosts were hospitable in the extreme, changing their plans to accommodate us, even laying on wonderful food for us to enjoy.
The region itself was a surprise – beautiful landscapes, rich culture, development all around; and in Erbil, modern shopping malls, multiplex cinemas and 5 star hotels – not the war-ravaged country that from watching the news we had expected it would be.
During our ten days in Kurdistan we had many meetings; from government officials, to cinema board directors, business leaders, and film/tv production companies. Primarily based in Erbil we also travelled around to Sulaymaniyah, Koya and Kifri to visit the proposed locations for the film shoot. We went on television to talk about the film. We even went to see Erbil play Baghdad at football – it was a close game but we were glad that Erbil won!
Our focus was always to talk about the feature film, BLINDFOLD SHOES – a UK/Kurdistan co-production to be filmed in the English language (filming in the spring of 2014) and aimed at as broad an international audience as possible. The tale of 10 year old Tishko, who follows his dream against all the odds, the story is a metaphor for the way the Kurdish people have never given up.
It might also be a metaphor for making films. In the current economic climate, making a feature film for the cinema is a difficult job. We have our story; we now know that there are companies and individuals who can help us make the film in Kurdistan [with the partnership of some experienced English and European Heads of Department], we know that we can hire the film equipment we require, we know the locations are perfect. All that is left is securing $8-10 million that will enable us to make a film that, hopefully, will help reveal to the world the small, but exciting, region of Kurdistan, helping audiences discover something unexpected about a part of the world they thought they knew all about.
Making the film is just the beginning of the journey – then comes the challenge of selling the film into cinemas around the globe and persuading an audience to part with their hard-earned money to go and see it.
Like Tishko in Kae Bahar’s touching and funny story for BLINDFOLD SHOES, we need tenacity and courage to continue the journey, no matter the odds, no matter the challenges. Together with our new friends in Kurdistan, we look forward to continuing to follow the dream.
Mark Blaney/Jackie Sheppard
www.footprintfilms.co.uk
Our last feature film, Africa United, was the fictional story of three children from Rwanda who walk an impossible 3000-mile journey to the football World Cup in South Africa. Rather than make somewhere else look like Rwanda, we shot the film in Rwanda, nearby neighbour Burundi, and South Africa, all three countries having had their share of trouble and unrest. So, for us, Kurdistan was just another adventure, even if we didn’t completely know what to expect.
Never again will we complain about England when the thermometer occasionally hits the thirty degree mark; landing in Kurdistan to find temperatures of fifty plus degrees, we now know that England rarely gets more than mildly warm – Kurdistan gets hot. But, the warmth of the sun was matched by the warmth of the Kurdish welcome. Everywhere we went, our hosts were hospitable in the extreme, changing their plans to accommodate us, even laying on wonderful food for us to enjoy.
The region itself was a surprise – beautiful landscapes, rich culture, development all around; and in Erbil, modern shopping malls, multiplex cinemas and 5 star hotels – not the war-ravaged country that from watching the news we had expected it would be.
During our ten days in Kurdistan we had many meetings; from government officials, to cinema board directors, business leaders, and film/tv production companies. Primarily based in Erbil we also travelled around to Sulaymaniyah, Koya and Kifri to visit the proposed locations for the film shoot. We went on television to talk about the film. We even went to see Erbil play Baghdad at football – it was a close game but we were glad that Erbil won!
Our focus was always to talk about the feature film, BLINDFOLD SHOES – a UK/Kurdistan co-production to be filmed in the English language (filming in the spring of 2014) and aimed at as broad an international audience as possible. The tale of 10 year old Tishko, who follows his dream against all the odds, the story is a metaphor for the way the Kurdish people have never given up.
It might also be a metaphor for making films. In the current economic climate, making a feature film for the cinema is a difficult job. We have our story; we now know that there are companies and individuals who can help us make the film in Kurdistan [with the partnership of some experienced English and European Heads of Department], we know that we can hire the film equipment we require, we know the locations are perfect. All that is left is securing $8-10 million that will enable us to make a film that, hopefully, will help reveal to the world the small, but exciting, region of Kurdistan, helping audiences discover something unexpected about a part of the world they thought they knew all about.
Making the film is just the beginning of the journey – then comes the challenge of selling the film into cinemas around the globe and persuading an audience to part with their hard-earned money to go and see it.
Like Tishko in Kae Bahar’s touching and funny story for BLINDFOLD SHOES, we need tenacity and courage to continue the journey, no matter the odds, no matter the challenges. Together with our new friends in Kurdistan, we look forward to continuing to follow the dream.
Mark Blaney/Jackie Sheppard
www.footprintfilms.co.uk