Omer Chawshin

An elderly radio-operator travels across Kurdistan in the war-torn 80s assuring communication between lost families.

Six year old Azad (a Kurd from Iraq) was engaged to his cousin Vian but after that the two kids were separated due to the political situation. At 19, Azad accidentally witnessed the murder of Vian's father and had to leave the country. On board the ship to Europe he met a beautiful girl and fell in love with her without recognizing that she was his fiancée Vian. Vian, on her part, did not reveal herself to him because she thought he had been involved in the murder of her father and she tried to suppress her feelings towards Azad.

On his wedding day, a Kurdish man must flee through Turkish, then Iraqi and eventually Iranian Kurdistan.

Before Snowfall starts with a dramatic escape: Eighteen year-old Nermin runs away from her wedding in a village in Iraqi Kurdistan. Being the elder of the family, her younger brother Siyar becomes responsible for finding her and restoring the family reputation. The mission proves a dangerous one for the inexperienced Siyar. First stop is Istanbul, where he meets Elvin, a young girl who becomes his travel companion. On the way from east to west, through Europe and all the way to Norway, Siyar comes to realize his own need for respect, and for love.

Inside a beat up stadium in Kirkuk, Iraq, live many refugees trying to escape Sadam Hussein's administration. Asu lives with his younger brother who has lost his legs from a landmine. Next door lives Hilin, who has not been able to express her feelings. One of the only sources of happiness for these people who live amid fear of poverty and bombings is soccer. Asu gathers together the Kurdish, Arabs and Turkish in order to hold a soccer match. Although they are of different races, they become close neighbors.

"Jiyan" takes place in Halabja about five years after Saddam's infamous chemical attack in 1988. Diyari (Kurdo Galali) has come from his new homeland, America, to put up a badly needed new orphanage. As construction proceeds, he gradually becomes acquainted with the tragic individual stories of the survivors. Prime among these is orphan girl Jiyan (Pirsheng Berzinji), and her lively young cousin Sherko (Choman Hawrami). Although he seems to fit right into life in this impoverished town, Diyari can hardly absorb the catastrophe that hit there, nor can he accept the level of injury that he encounters. When the orphanage is ready, Diyari says his goodbyes, plunging Jiyan back into quiet despair.

To escape to the European paradise, the only way is a tunnel that is hidden. A 70 years old Christian man (Uncle Zuheir) lives among the Muslims, his wife and his daughter were victims of violence, he lives next to the tunnel so that he can help people and save their lives.

A police officer finds himself haunted by a traumatic childhood memory as he searches for a missing man in the rugged mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, in this striking feature debut by Batin Ghobadi.