HAUS DIGITAL

The First Movie

Film Review: The First Movie (Dir.) Mark Cousins

Here’s a place you know: Iraq. Here’s a place you will now: Goptapa.

The tiny unknown village of Goptapa, population circa 700, in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq is the
backdrop for Mark Cousin’s first feature-length film. ‘The First Movie’ is a part-biographical and
part-autobiographical documentary about the resilience of the place and its people, both of which have suffered terrible chemical warfare during the ‘Al-Anfal’ genocidal attacks at the hands of Saddam Hussein’s regime. This picture, like the children’s stories and their village, is both beautiful and saddening to see, but the predominant underlying sentiment is one of hope and indefatigable optimism.

The cinematography is matched in lyricism without pretension by Cousin’s earnest narrative. We are introduced to young talents in film-making, both in Mark Cousin’s younger self ‘Belfast Boy’, and his kindred ‘little Mohammed’: a boy the crew met a year prior when scouting for locations. Given a flip-camera to record his thoughts and story, Mohammed displays a precocious talent for film-making and reminds us of the tenacity of a child’s spirit in the face of adversity.

Screened at CCA on 7th August as part of the Beyond Borders Scotland 2010 Summer Programme.
See also photography exhibition ‘Capturing Kurdistan’ at Artists in Exile, Glasgow 7th/8th August
and Kurds: Through the Photographer’s Lens, published by The Delfina Foundation.

http://beyondborders2010.com/events/capturing-kurdistan/
http://www.thefirstmovie.net/
http://www.trolleybooks.com/bookSingle.php?bookId=87