Kurdistan Bloggers Union

With his opinion of war in Iraq, which is totally opposed to Michael Moore's one, Hiner Saleem provokes very hostile but not surprising reactions from "anti-war people". According to Azeddine Mabrouki, in the Algerian newspaper al Watan :

This movie is damned mediocre, even if it is official ! This film is a pure propaganda that fires all who is not Kurdish, in particular all the Arabs in Iraq or elsewhere. Impossible to go into the details of a so confused realization (it is the story of a Kurdish soldier who wants to be demobilized during the Iraq-Iran war). That's simple, Zero kilometer is the right title : from beginning to end, it is heavy. One can make two assumptions on this unhappy choice with the official competition :Either the one which imposed it on the festival believed that Emir Kusturica, who directs the jury, will like it because he is supposed to like war movies... or after the criticisms of a small part of the media, last year, in connection with the selection of Michael Moore's memorable work (on Iraq, Bush, the CIA, etc.), some want, this year, to show the extreme opposite, the opposite of the astute Moore's opus, an "embeddad", coarse, heinous movie, something which is swimming in the more absolute nothingness.

For The Guardian, it is also a "pro-war movie" : "George Bush and Tony Blair will whoop for joy. A strongly pro-war film has been premiered at the Cannes film festival - and it comes from Iraq". In the same article, Hiner Saleem gives an interview about his work.

In the communist French newspaper, L'Humanité, Hiner Saleem gives the quite same interview but with more details about the anti-war movement in France :

In 2003 I did not understand the position of France. I was shocked, upset, and I could not speak. When my heroes yell their freedom, they are absolutely alone. I fear that it is premonitory for Iraq and the Kurds. I was against Saddam Hussein, which does not mean that I am pro-American. I suffered too much from this Manichean attitude. In 2003, finally, the Kurds could hope a little.

Like all the movies which are shown in Cannes we could only see it next year. So I could not argue on its artistic value. But I have seen many times Hiner Saleem, and he is certainly neither heinous, nor "against all non-Kurdish people"...
In any case, Kilometer Zero, one year after Michael Moore's award, triggers a useful and passionating debate about Iraqi events. I would be surprised if it has a prize because of its "pro-American image", but at least it brings a Kurdish voice to an international audience.