Director

Alina Gorlova

Ukraine, Germany, Latvia | 2020 | 104 min | Arabic, German, Kurdish, Russian, Ukrainian

• Producer Maksym Nakonechyi, Patrick Hamm, Ilona Bicevska
• Production Company Tabor, Bulldog Agenda, Avantis Promo
• Screenplay Alina Gorlova, Maksym Nakonechnyi
• Cinematography Vyacheslav Tsvetkov
• Editing Alina Gorlova, Olha Zhurba, Simon Mozgovyi
• Sound Vasyl Yavtushenko
• Cast
• Contacts

  Square Eyes

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About the Film

In a slow build-up, Ukrainian director Alina Gorlova reveals the features of her hero, Andriy Suleyman, as mysterious and withdrawn with a tendency for silence in her documentary masterpiece, This Rain Will Never Stop.

Andriy’s presence in Ukraine is a direct result of the intermingling war conditions, struggles, and strange human destinies that took him across many places. Told in small clips and phrases found within dialogue and conversations, his kinship ties predict a Kurdish family’s state of diaspora between Germany, Ukraine, the Syrian Hasaka, and Iraqi Kurdistan.

Each member of the Kurdish Suleyman family now lives under a different star, prompting this cinematic reflection on human existence.

By painstakingly revealing Andriy Suleyman’s agony along with his constant feeling of psychological dispersion, Gorlova rescinds his heroism and turns him instead into a cold creature, more of an observer than a participant. Despite being a Red Cross volunteer at the height of the armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia over the region of Donbas, Andriy rarely gets excited by ideas or actions.

In this same vein, Gorlova is eager to unveil the fragility of mankind in the time of war and accompanies Andriy on his journey to Hasaka, where he intends to bury his father, in his birthplace.

Andriy’s purposeful trip to Hasaka revives his links with his relatives, bringing him closer to knowing the cause of their migration and scattering all around the world. On his journey, he passes by his uncle’s home in Iraq. On his way to the Syrian side of the Kurdish state, he’s hindered by the downpours of heavy rain, which destroyed the bridge linking the two sides. Entering a world that’s completely foreign to him, Andriy Suleyman feels a consistent, painful self-alienation, precisely portraying his state of mind wherever he goes.

Kais Kassem