The first Iraqi film to be chosen to compete in the Palme d'Or competition at Cannes, KILOMETRE ZERO is a darkly humorous story about a Kurdish soldier and an Iraqi taxi driver who join together to return the body of a fal... more »len soldier to his family, on the other side of the country. From the director of the surprise hit 'Vodka Lemon', and featuring Belcim Bilgin, an Elle cover girl in Turkey.
In the late 1980s, as the war between Iran and Iraq was ending, Saddam Hussein turned his army against the Kurds. Kurdish civilians were rounded up at gunpoint and forced to serve in the Iraqi army. KILOMETRE ZERO tells the story of one young Kurdish man, Ako, who is 'recruited' into the Army.
Ako receives a special assignment, to deliver the body of a soldier to his family. He is paired with an Iraqi taxi driver, and together they set off across the desert, with the soldier's flag-draped coffin on the roof of their truck. A solemn mission and a long drive might be enough to create a bond between Arab and Kurd, but hostility and mistrust dominate the atmosphere. Highway checkpoints make the tension worse. Together Ako and his reluctant companion struggle to make sense of their country and each other, as they transport their fallen comrade across the vast Iraqi desert.« less