As part of the Focus on Iraq and as film of the month, this afternoon at 7 p.m., Casa Árabe of Madrid is screening in its auditorium the feature film Un día feliz (A Happy Day), by the Norwegian filmmaker of Iraqi Kurdish origin, Hisham Zaman, followed by a colloquium (in Spanish) on the issues raised by the film: migrants, refugees and unaccompanied minors. The entries are numbered. The projection will be in Original Version Subtitled in Spanish (VOSE). Tickets can be purchased at this link.
Presented at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, the film focuses on three teenagers living in a refugee centre in a remote region of Norway and facing deportation when they are about to turn eighteen. It is a daring film, unusually set in the icy north of Norway, about a group of friends trying to escape from a suffocating reality. The three friends come up with a plan to escape through the mountain to a world where their dreams can become reality. But when one of them falls in love, their plan begins to fall apart.
He won the awards for Best Director, Best Photography (Lukasz Zamaro) at the Duhok International Film Festival 2024, as well as the FIPRESCI Award and a Special Mention for Hisham Zaman in the Kurdish Feature Film Competition.
After the screening will take place a colloquium with Elena Vázquez Núñez, cultural manager and criminal lawyer expert in Human Rights and Migration. The dialogue will focus on some issues raised by the film, notably the issue of unaccompanied minors, migrants and refugees. Presents Karim Hauser, coordinator of Culture of Casa Árabe.
Hisham Zaman (born 1975 in Kirkuk) is a Norwegian film director and screenwriter of Iraqi Kurdish origin. He graduated from the Norwegian Film School in Lillehammer in 2004. His films focus on the inner stories and dilemmas of characters united by a common refugee experience, exploring human themes such as love, acceptance, sacrifice, revenge, loyalty, and honor. He has co-written several of his scripts with the Norwegian novelist Kjell Ola Dahl. Zaman’s breakthrough film, Bawke, won over 40 national and international awards. He has also twice won the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film, being the only filmmaker to have received this distinction two years in a row.