Coming-of-age drama set in early ‘90s Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s regime, following two young homeless Kurdish brothers who decide to journey to America after being inspired by Richard Donner’s Superman. But first, they need passports, money and a donkey called Michael Jackson.
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Sometimes all you need for a heart-warming movie is a road trip that begins with two kids attempting to travel to the US on the back of a donkey named Michael Jackson… In director Karzan Kader’s Bekas, two homeless Kurdish brothers catch a glimpse of Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman and attempt to journey from Iraq to the US Metropolis to seek their Kryptonian hero, so that he might topple Saddam Hussein and resurrect their parents. As you do.
At times Bekas (Kurdish for “orphans”) betrays its roots as a short film, now stretched out into a beautifully shot ninety-minute road trip. Aged just seven and nine, Zamand Taha and Sarwar Fazil are superb as young brothers Zana and Dana. It’s testament to Kader’s direction that what could so easily have tipped into sappy sentimentality retains a hard-edged humanity and humour amidst the despair and depravation. Beautiful cinematography and the natural acting coaxed out of the young leads lend Bekas the quality of a fable akin to Danny Boyle’s overlooked Millions.
Many of the plentiful laughs come courtesy of first-time actor Taha, as younger brother Zana, who rivals Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild for scene-stealing charm. Like Beasts, Bekas presents life through a child’s eyes – full of wonder, warmth and wry humour. For some Bekas will be too sweet, but like a flower blooming in a desert junkyard, it portrays how innocence, hope, humanity and kinship can triumph in the bleakest places.
