‘All The Mountains Give’ is a powerful account of the lives of Hamid and Yasser, two kolbar smugglers ferrying contraband between Iran and Iraq. The film is set to premiere at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF).
In Kurdish, ‘kolbar’ means the one who carries a load. The word is used to describe those involved in the dangerous cross-border trade in the mountains between Turkey, Iran and Iraq. Kolbars face mines, armed drones and shootings by border guards during their perilous crossings.
Kurdistan lies within the national borders of four nation states, and kolbars regularly traverse the frontiers between three of those four parts.
The film, directed by Arash Rakhsha, has already received critical acclaim. Emma Boa of the EIFF called the film “A rare insight into the plight of the Kurdish people”, adding, “this is an elegant portrait of a marginalised people, where the palpable sense of risk and danger is contrasted with the gentle rhythms of family life under harsh conditions.”
The dangers faced by kolbars described in the film are very real, and are escalating fast. On 31 June 2024, a kolbar named Rahim Ibrahim was killed by Iranian border guards, while crossing into Iranian Kurdistan. His body was reportedly thrown into the river by the guards, but was later recovered by residents in Wiliu village in Sardasht, part of the West Azerbaijan province of Iran.
Unfortunately, killings of kolbars are all too common. In May this year, two kolbars were killed in Iran in separate incidents.
The number of kolbars who were killed or injured during a two-week period in November 2023 in Iranian Kurdistan was 43, according to the Norwegian organisation Hengaw.
Infamously, in 2011 the Turkish military bombed a convoy of smugglers travelling from Roboski in southeast Turkey to Iraqi Kurdistan. Thirty-four people were killed, including 19 children. The incident has been referred to by Kurdish politician Leyla Zana as “the wound of Kurdistan”.
The Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) has condemned the attacks on kolbars as “brutal”. They said, in a statement, that the attacks were part of “the hostile policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran against the people of Kurdistan”.
‘All The Mountains Give’ is scheduled to be shown at 11am on 17 August at Edinburgh’s Cameo Theatre, at 13.30pm on 17 August at the Summerhall Theatre, at 11am on 17 August at 50 George Square and at 9pm on 20 August at Inspace.
The 91-minute film has been entered as one of ten world premieres competing at the EIFF for the The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence.
In 2000, Kurdish film ‘A Time for Drunken Horses’ won the Caméra d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival. The film, which was directed by Bahman Ghobadi, tells the story of a young kolbar named Ayoub who undertakes the perilous cross-border journey in an attempt to provide for his family. Ghobadi wrote, filmed and produced ‘A Time for Drunken Horses’ in his native village in Iranian Kurdistan.
