25

WEDNESDAY

Iranian Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi, who debuted with the powerful A Time for Drunken Horses, takes another trip across the Iran-Iraq border with his second feature, Marooned in Iraq. The film, seen on the European festival circuit under the title Songs From My Mother’s Country, is about an aging Kurdish singer who hears that his wife, an exceptional vocalist who ran off with his best friend years before, is in trouble. He insists that his two grown sons, also musicians, accompany him on a trip to Iraq to find their mother. A trek that begins comically soon turns harrowing, as the seekers encounter bandits, hustlers, orphans, and refugees, all living under the threat of bombs falling from planes representing both sides of the Iran-Iraq war. Ghobadi will attend the screening, take questions from the audience, and discuss the film with critic Godfrey Cheshire, an expert on Iranian cinema. The evening begins at 7 p.m. at the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s Hammer Auditorium, 500 17th St. NW. $10. For reservations call (202) 639-1770. (Mark Jenkins)