NEWROZ FILMS

Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter salutes David & Layla

"....the best movie and winner of this year’s LKFF... has to be David and Layla...the true highlight of the festival...a phenomenal film..." Full review of the LKFF festival at bottom.

London-based 76 year old Writer/Director/Actor Harold Pinter received the Noble prize for literature in 2005. Pinter is one of the world's top living playwright and screenwriter. Twice Oscar nominee and the winner of several international Awards, see his 100+ films, TV and plays at IMDB link below.

At the London Closing Night Gala screening of David & Layla, during the Q&A, the par excellence Human Rights Activist and playwright, the Austrian Ms. Estella Schmidt, a colleague of Harold Pinter, took the microphone to address the director and the 350+ packed audience on behalf of Mr. Harold Pinter.

Estella said: Mr. Pinter deeply regrets not being able to attend the screening due to health reasons. He and I had both reviewed and greatly admired David & Layla's original, courageous script in 2001. Had he seen the film I'm sure he would have appreciated and enjoyed it as much as I just did.

Mr. Pinter sends his congratulations to Jay Jonroy for succeeding in making such a bold, politically relevant film against impossible industry odds. He feels as I do that David & Layla is another proof that Kurds are now perhaps the most progressive force in the Middle East….

Harold Pinter: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0056217/

Anyone interested in the difference between 'truth' in drama and "truth" in life- perhaps relevant to some innocent questions asked about David & Layla- see the beginning of Pinter's fascinating: Nobel Lecture - Literature 2005

Theatre and film experience need "Suspension of Disbelief": Suspension of Disbelief

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Other notable films at the London KFF were Bahman Ghobadi’s Half Moon, an usual homage to Mozart - Toronto FF and winner of top Award at San Sebastian IFF 2006, and Kilometer Zero - Official Selection in Competition at Cannes 2005.

Yet by the visible and audible reactions, including frequent applauses, of the vast majority of 350+ packed audience, intellectuals, film buffs and critics, David & Layla, screening on Closing Night Gala, was considered to be the ‘highlight…the best movie and winner…of the festival” as also subsequently reported on TV, in media and on several internet sites, in English and in Kurdish.

Plus tens of enthusiastic emails sent to the director, especially from women identifying with Layla- the first Middle Eastern Muslim woman lead role on screen who drinks wine (perhaps for spiritual pleasure, like Omar Khayyam!), dances and decides her own destiny.

Search Google to find the review below and other reviews.

Same audience and critics’ verdict at Berlin KFF's two screenings, including the sold out Closing Night.

“However, a fairly new director on the scene, Jay Jonroy, with his film David and Layla, proved to be the true highlight of the festival.”

..the festival closed with the American production David and Layla, a phenomenal film inspired by a true love story.

… it would be fair to say the best movie and winner of this year’s 4th Kurdish Film Festival has to be David and Layla. Not only for its superb direction and light hearted approach to introducing important political issues in an unorthodox and controversial way – which all good art should accomplish – but also for its rich portrayal of the beauty and benefit that comes of multiculturalism at the human level…

This film is a big, light hearted taboo breaker, with gay issues and things of this nature hardly put in to the public domain through conventional Kurdish films,...it also contains repeated remarks about drink, food (Halal and Kosher), regional politics of the Kurds and other issues which normally other Kurdish (and Iranian) directors are trying to keep their distance from.

The very interesting thing about this film...it was truly the only Kurdish film which made you constantly laugh; that is something you would not do normally watching a typical Kurdish movie.

The other and most significant part of this move was how the director was trying to break the sex taboo within the traditional and culturally Muslim society by directly telling and visually representing sexual acts and teasing the Kurdish audiences...

...it is a shame that such a good quality film for sure will be censored and even banned from showing in many Arab countries as well as in Turkey, Iran and Syria for its direct remark on regional politics, such as the Armenian genocide and politically sensitive Kirkuk as well as Palestinians and Jews..."

Full review & photo at the bottom of this: http://www.kurdmedia.com/articles.asp?id=13776

Professional reviews: VARIETY+ other Reviews.

Click User Comments to choose from a menu of 50 fascinating, original and diverse U.S. and international audience reviews of David & Layla, including new comments from Europe.

Remarkably, every take of the film is different and 100% positive.

Unlike other major Kurdish & Iranian features, David & Layla is an orphan film: it's unfunded and un-sponsored by any government or European producers. Nor is this film supported or represented by any agents or distributors. So this first Middle Eastern/Kurdish American film - the first mainstream film in English aimed at international audiences - needs everyone's kind vote.

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