A Time for Drunken Horses

A Time for Drunken Horses (Zamani barayé masti asbha, 2000) is Bahman Ghobadi's Kurdish drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. When their father dies, five children in a mountain village on the Iran–Iraq border are left to fend for themselves, with 12-year-old Ayoub now the head of the household.

There is no money, and his gravely ill younger brother Madi needs surgery he will not survive the winter without. To earn it, Ayoub joins the smugglers hauling contraband over a frozen mountain pass by mule. In that cold the animals refuse to move under their loads unless they are fed liquor first — which is where the title comes from.

Ghobadi shot in his own homeland with non-actors, real Kurdish children, and the rawness shows in every frame. His debut took the Caméra d'Or at Cannes in 2000. This is not comfort viewing; it is eighty unsparing minutes about how far a child will go for family. Stream A Time for Drunken Horses online on iFILM.