Marooned in Iraq
Wellspring Media | Release Date: April 25, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
88
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The New York TimesDave Kehr
If Mr. Ghobadi's dominant theme is the devastation of the Kurds, his subdominant tone is one of strength, resistance and fertility. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleJonathan Curiel
Ghobadi infuses his movie with a humor that can almost be called Seinfeldian, and it's this mix of laughter with tears that gives Marooned in Iraq its big impact. Read full review
100
TimeRichard Schickel
You'll have to seek it out in its limited release, but no current movie is more worth the effort. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
A mix of war film, road movie, and romantic comedy-drama, this peripatetic yarn is less resonant than Ghobadi's beautiful "A Time for Drunken Horses," but it has enough energy to keep your eyes popping and your toes tapping. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Nothing I've read about Iraq or seen on TV in the past few weeks has felt nearly as real and intimate as this commanding fiction. Read full review
90
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Mostly, though, it's a film about that hollow feeling that hits you when the tears have all dried up and your face hurts way too much to even crack a smile. Read full review
90
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
This lusty, heartfelt movie has a near Brueghelian visual energy and a humanist passion as contagious as its music. Read full review
90
L.A. WeeklyHenry Sheehan
Occurring as it does amid a surge of tragedy and bitterness, its comic effect is powerfully mitigated. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeJanice Page
As full of joy as pain, it's a perspective we need to see more often. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
On a miniscule budget, Ghobadi conveys the terror of war, while the beautifully edited sequence in which Iranian villagers make bricks resembles nothing so much as a choreographed dance number. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Eventually turns somber, with stark depiction of mass graves and suffering refugees. The final scene will break your heart. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
It's part grim Beckett-like drama, part joyous picaresque, and all quite mesmerizing. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Even though the film's tone grows ever more elegiac, it stubbornly remains a celebration of the Kurdish capacity to endure. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Ends with horrific revelations that are made all the more powerful by the lightness that precedes them. Simultaneously sad and hopeful, Ghobadi suggests the resiliency of a culture in which war is part of the fabric of everyday life. Read full review
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