Jiyan (2002) User Reviews

A beautiful and at times harsh and funny movie.Recommended.

[mnorthco · 8/10 · 9 January 2003]

A beautiful and at times harsh and funny movie proving that you can still make a simple and honest story without the hollywood embelishments forced on us by the mainstream movie industry. The director has a gift rare these days.

This movie should be mandatory viewing for all those making political decisions on the lives of the kurdish and arabic people.

Masterful storytelling and a very moving film

[gypsye · 10/10 · 26 May 2002]

This film made me both laugh and cry back and forth. The music and the imagery are poetic and enchanting. here is a film that deals with one of the most tragic events of our time and yet makes you walk away with hope. It puts us in cozy closeness with a people most repressed and most ignored - the Kurds, whom it would be hard to forget after seeing Jiyan. I give it two thumbs high up.

A virtually untold story.

[davidj4051 · 10/10 · 25 March 2010]

Jano Rosebiani depicts a tragic, yet wonderful story of rebirth with Jiyan! As an American watching the film, the passion and bravery of the Kurdish people were borough to life in a very special way! This film was outstanding in every aspect, from it's hum-ours moments, to the heartfelt sadness of the aftermath of the Chemical Attack by Saddam Hussein in 1985.

What makes this film special is the extraordinary way Jano Rosebiani portrays hope, while surrounded by hopelessness, as well as an intimate understanding of just what a proud people the Kurds are! Jiyan is a loving, funny, sad, and intellectual movie worthy of watching! It will make you feel alive!

Weak story line mars portrayal of chemical-bombed Kurdish town

[ALB · 4/10 · 16 April 2002]

Jiyan [Life in the Kurdish language] portrays a Kurdish town five years after an Iraqi chemical weapons attack has left 5000 dead and more maimed or scarred. Jiyan is also the name of one of the main characters, a girl who has terrible chemical burn scars on one side of her face. A hospital scene shows many more scarred victims.

Writer-director-producer-editor Jano Rosebiani does a good job showing the ways of life in a place unfamiliar to the outside world. His story is one of hope more than despair. Unfortunately, it's not much of a story either. The main character, a Kurdish-born American, comes to build a new orphanage. He meets the locals.

The orphanage gets built. There's no conflict, beyond a lone fundamentalist railing against a old man for making music, and not even much politics, beyond offering the view that Saddam Hussein is evil. As such, Life seems fairly dull.