Iran/Iraq/Austria/France 2006, Kurdish and Persian with English subtitles, 35mm, 114 min
Director: Bahman Ghobadi
Screenplay : Bahman Ghobadi
Cinematography: Nigel Block, Crighton Bone
Cast: Ismail Ghaffari, Allah Morad Rashtiani, Hedieh Tehrani, Golshifteh Farahani, Hassan Poorshirazi
Print Source: The Matchfactory
Mamo is a renowned Kurdish singer who is heading to Iraqi Kurdistan along with ten of his sons to give a concert after years of silence. The occasion is a special performance after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Mamo's music is composed through the essence of a woman's voice and so he needs to take a woman singer along. But woman are forbidden from singing in Iran and so the troupe are obliged to make the trip illegally.
Vacillating between comedy and tragedy, Half Moon is full of shimmering magic and haunting landscapes. At the same time, it is unafraid to approach the contemporary realities of the region, albeit with ironic wit. In the process, it expresses an essence of the Kurdish condition – that when you have nothing else, you must face life with humour and intelligence.
Half Moon , along with Bahman Ghobadi's other films, represents an important moment in cinema. But more than that, it creates a cultural map for a country – Kurdistan – that doesn't exist on the political map. Ghobadi's film tells the world about this country and also reaffirms for Kurdish people their very existence in a world that continually tries to deny it.
The Cape Winelands will again at the 2012 edition of this festival present a series of Masterclasses and workshops. These events are sponsored by the City of Cape Town and Wesgro.
Winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes festival, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s new film has the magic of a fairy tale and the simplicity of a folk tale. Wonderfully immersive, slow and dreamy, 
