# A Time for Drunken Horses (زمانی برای مستی اسبها)
**A Time for Drunken Horses** (زمانی برای مستی اسبها; Kurdish: ساتێک بۆ مەستیی ئەسپەکان) is a 2000 Iranian drama directed, written, and produced by Bahman Ghobadi, set in a Kurdish village near the Iran–Iraq border. It was Ghobadi's first feature film and the first Kurdish-language feature film produced in Iran, and it won the Caméra d'Or for best first feature at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.[1](https://fest.afi.com/2000/asian-new-classics-2000/a-time-for-drunken-horses/) • [2](https://tribecafilm.com/news/512c0dd81c7d76d9a90005f8-tribeca-tribute-bahman-gh) • [21](https://www.lkff.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/The-nature-of-Kurdish-film-by-Havi-Ibrahim-1.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director, writer, producer | Bahman Ghobadi, born 1969 in Bane, Iranian Kurdistan; former assistant to Abbas Kiarostami[1](https://fest.afi.com/2000/asian-new-classics-2000/a-time-for-drunken-horses/) • [3](https://filmfestival.gr/en/tiff/films/a-time-for-drunken-horses/) |
| Year and setting | Made in Iranian year 1378 (2000) in a border village between Iran and Iraq[4](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Czas_pijanych_koni?hl=fa&id=55C4F79E8132576EMV) • [5](https://www.manzoom.ir/title/tt4398726/%D9%81%DB%8C%D9%84%D9%85-%D8%B3%DB%8C%D9%86%D9%85%D8%A7%DB%8C%DB%8C-%D8%B2%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%AA%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%A8%D9%87%D8%A7-1378) |
| Language | Kurdish dialogue; the first Iranian feature with entirely Kurdish dialogue[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/time_for_drunken_horses) |
| Cast | Non-professional actors, mostly villagers playing themselves: Ayoub Ahmadi (Ayoub), Rojin Younessi (Rojin), Amaneh Ekhtiar-Dini (Ameneh), Madi Ekhtiar-Dini (Madi)[1](https://fest.afi.com/2000/asian-new-classics-2000/a-time-for-drunken-horses/) • [7](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/a-time-for-drunken-horses-2000) |
| Cannes 2000 | Caméra d'Or for best first feature, shared with Hassan Yektapanah's *Djomeh*; also FIPRESCI Prize[8](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0259072/awards/) • [9](https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/kinema/article/download/910/909/2196) |
| Total honors | 12 wins and 4 nominations[10](https://bbcinsight.pages.dev/persian/arts-50465901) |
| Runtime | 80 minutes, 35 mm color[11](https://mk2films.com/en/film/un-temps-pour-livresse-des-chevaux-zamani-baraye-masi-asbha/) |
## Spoilers
### Story
The film follows Ayoub, the eldest boy in a family of five Kurdish children living at subsistence level near the Iraqi border. After their father, a smuggler, is killed by a landmine, Ayoub must provide for his brothers and sisters. The youngest brother, Madi, a disabled 15-year-old, needs an expensive operation to survive. When smuggling truck tires across the snowbound, landmine-strewn mountain passes does not raise enough money, the elder sister Rojin agrees to marry an Iraqi man who will pay for the operation. At the border exchange, the groom's family refuses to take the sick boy and instead gives the family a horse (a mule in some accounts); Ayoub returns to Iran with Madi as time for the operation runs out.[3](https://filmfestival.gr/en/tiff/films/a-time-for-drunken-horses/) • [12](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2001/archive/a-time-for-drunken-horses/) • [13](https://mijfilm.com/fa/movies/time-for-drunken-horses/)
The title refers to the conditions of the work: in the winter cold, the pack mules and horses are fed alcohol so they will keep hauling loads such as truck tires across the border.[14](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/a-time-for-drunken-horses-film-review-by-trinity) • [15](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/aug/17/culture.peterbradshaw)
## Production
Ghobadi came to the feature after making short films, including *Life in Fog* (1998), about children in Iranian Kurdistan; the short's success at international festivals opened the way to a feature on the same subject.[10](https://bbcinsight.pages.dev/persian/arts-50465901) In a later interview he described his method: he wrote six lines on a piece of paper telling himself to make a serious film about the children on the border, divided the material into eight sections, and shot them as eight ten-minute films while looking for a line to connect the stories.[2](https://tribecafilm.com/news/512c0dd81c7d76d9a90005f8-tribeca-tribute-bahman-gh) He had encountered juvenile smugglers while researching the earlier short, and set the film in his home region; his opening declaration of intent states that "these people are not figments of my imagination".[16](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/a-time-for-drunken-horses-aguirre-wrath-of-god-pg-9131670.html)
The cast was drawn from non-professional actors of the border region, and several of the children share the surname Ekhtiar-Dini; Roger Ebert noted that in general "the villagers play themselves".[7](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/a-time-for-drunken-horses-2000) Saed Nikzat was the director of photography, Samad Tavazoi the editor, and [Hossein Alizadeh](https://www.edgepedia.org/hossein-alizadeh) the composer.[3](https://filmfestival.gr/en/tiff/films/a-time-for-drunken-horses/) Production companies included Bahman Ghobadi Films, MK2 Productions, and the Farabi Cinema Foundation.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/time_for_drunken_horses)
## Style and reception
The film works in a naturalistic, near-documentary style that deliberately blurs fiction and documentary; the voice-over in the early scenes is an interview between Ayoub's younger sister Amaneh and an unidentified adult.[12](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2001/archive/a-time-for-drunken-horses/) Critics placed Ghobadi in the neorealist tradition of Iranian filmmakers such as his former mentor [Abbas Kiarostami](https://www.edgepedia.org/abbas-kiarostami), using nonprofessional actors and documentary technique to tell stories of the human condition through children's eyes.[17](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/a-time-for-drunken-horses/) Roger Ebert, rating it three and a half stars out of four, compared its conviction to *The Bicycle Thief*, *[Salaam Bombay!](https://www.edgepedia.org/salaam-bombay)*, and *Pixote*, films that look unblinkingly at desperate lives on the margin.[7](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/a-time-for-drunken-horses-2000)
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 86% critics score from 36 reviews; Metacritic assigns it a Metascore of 78 based on 24 critic reviews, and its United States theatrical gross was $701,500.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/time_for_drunken_horses) • [17](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/a-time-for-drunken-horses/)
## Significance
The Caméra d'Or at Cannes 2000, awarded as best first feature and shared with *Djomeh* by fellow Iranian Hassan Yektapanah, made the film a festival phenomenon and opened Ghobadi's international career.[8](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0259072/awards/) • [9](https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/kinema/article/download/910/909/2196) • [10](https://bbcinsight.pages.dev/persian/arts-50465901) As the first Iranian feature in the [Kurdish language](https://www.edgepedia.org/kurdish-language), set in [Kurdistan](https://www.edgepedia.org/kurdistan) with a native story and protagonists, it crossed national borders at its first international appearance and drew other filmmakers' attention to Kurdish identity and language on screen.[18](https://irlogos.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/%D8%B4%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%87%D8%8C-%D9%81%D9%87%D8%B1%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%8C-%D9%85%D9%82%D8%AF%D9%85%D9%87-%D8%AF%DA%A9%D8%AA%D8%B1-%D8%B3%D8%AC%D9%88%D8%AF%DB%8C-%D9%88-%D9%81%D8%B5%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%84-%DA%A9%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D9%87%D9%88%DB%8C%D8%AA-%D9%81%D8%B1%D9%87%D9%86%DA%AF%DB%8C-%D9%88-%D8%B3%DB%8C%D9%86%D9%85%D8%A7%DB%8C-%DA%A9%D8%B1%D8%AF.pdf) Ghobadi said in an interview that the film sold to 34 countries and sold well in most of them.[19](https://p30city.net/printthread.php?pp=40&s=f0154f79606d802962ac211e22bb5290&t=21692) The film was also Iran's representative to the Academy Awards that year.[18](https://irlogos.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/%D8%B4%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%87%D8%8C-%D9%81%D9%87%D8%B1%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%8C-%D9%85%D9%82%D8%AF%D9%85%D9%87-%D8%AF%DA%A9%D8%AA%D8%B1-%D8%B3%D8%AC%D9%88%D8%AF%DB%8C-%D9%88-%D9%81%D8%B5%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%84-%DA%A9%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D9%87%D9%88%DB%8C%D8%AA-%D9%81%D8%B1%D9%87%D9%86%DA%AF%DB%8C-%D9%88-%D8%B3%DB%8C%D9%86%D9%85%D8%A7%DB%8C-%DA%A9%D8%B1%D8%AF.pdf)
Beyond the Caméra d'Or and FIPRESCI Prize, its recorded honors include the Silver Hugo (Special Jury Prize) at the Chicago International Film Festival, a Special Jury Award at Gijón, the Freedom of Expression Award and a Top Foreign Films award from the [National Board of Review](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-board-of-review) in the United States, an International Jury Award at São Paulo, and a Best First Feature honorable mention at Sarajevo in 2001; the IMDb awards page lists 12 wins and 4 nominations in total.[8](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0259072/awards/) • [3](https://filmfestival.gr/en/tiff/films/a-time-for-drunken-horses/) With these awards Ghobadi established himself as a pioneer of Kurdish cinema, and he followed the film with *Songs from the My Land* (2001) and *Turtles Can Fly* (2004), continuing to depict Kurdish life across the Iran–Iraq border region.[3](https://filmfestival.gr/en/tiff/films/a-time-for-drunken-horses/) • [20](https://kalbos.ktu.lt/index.php/KStud/article/view/12427)
## References
1. [A Time for Drunken Horses, AFI FEST catalog](https://fest.afi.com/2000/asian-new-classics-2000/a-time-for-drunken-horses/)
2. [Tribeca Tribute: Bahman Ghobadi, Tribeca Film](https://tribecafilm.com/news/512c0dd81c7d76d9a90005f8-tribeca-tribute-bahman-gh)
3. [A Time for Drunken Horses, Thessaloniki International Film Festival](https://filmfestival.gr/en/tiff/films/a-time-for-drunken-horses/)
4. [زمانی برای مستی اسبها, Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Czas_pijanych_koni?hl=fa&id=55C4F79E8132576EMV)
5. [فیلم زمانی برای مستی اسبها, Manzoom](https://www.manzoom.ir/title/tt4398726/%D9%81%DB%8C%D9%84%D9%85-%D8%B3%DB%8C%D9%86%D9%85%D8%A7%DB%8C%DB%8C-%D8%B2%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%AA%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%A8%D9%87%D8%A7-1378)
6. [A Time for Drunken Horses, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/time_for_drunken_horses)
7. [A Time for Drunken Horses, review by Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/a-time-for-drunken-horses-2000)
8. [A Time for Drunken Horses (2000) Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0259072/awards/)
9. [Innovations at Cannes, Kinema (University of Waterloo)](https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/kinema/article/download/910/909/2196)
10. ['زمانی برای مستی اسبها' در آپارات, BBC News Persian](https://bbcinsight.pages.dev/persian/arts-50465901)
11. [A Time for Drunken Horses, mk2 Films](https://mk2films.com/en/film/un-temps-pour-livresse-des-chevaux-zamani-baraye-masi-asbha/)
12. [A Time for Drunken Horses, New Zealand International Film Festival 2001 archive](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2001/archive/a-time-for-drunken-horses/)
13. [زمانی برای مستی اسبها, MijFilm](https://mijfilm.com/fa/movies/time-for-drunken-horses/)
14. [A Time for Drunken Horses, Eye for Film review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/a-time-for-drunken-horses-film-review-by-trinity)
15. [A Time for Drunken Horses, review by Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/aug/17/culture.peterbradshaw)
16. [A Time for Drunken Horses; Aguirre, Wrath of God, The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/a-time-for-drunken-horses-aguirre-wrath-of-god-pg-9131670.html)
17. [A Time for Drunken Horses, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/a-time-for-drunken-horses/)
18. [شناسنامه، فهرست، مقدمه دکتر سجودی و فصل اول کتاب هویت فرهنگی و سینمای کرد (PDF)](https://irlogos.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/%D8%B4%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%87%D8%8C-%D9%81%D9%87%D8%B1%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%8C-%D9%85%D9%82%D8%AF%D9%85%D9%87-%D8%AF%DA%A9%D8%AA%D8%B1-%D8%B3%D8%AC%D9%88%D8%AF%DB%8C-%D9%88-%D9%81%D8%B5%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%84-%DA%A9%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D9%87%D9%88%DB%8C%D8%AA-%D9%81%D8%B1%D9%87%D9%86%DA%AF%DB%8C-%D9%88-%D8%B3%DB%8C%D9%86%D9%85%D8%A7%DB%8C-%DA%A9%D8%B1%D8%AF.pdf)
19. [متن تمام مصاحبههای بهمن قبادی در مورد چهار فیلم اول او, P30City](https://p30city.net/printthread.php?pp=40&s=f0154f79606d802962ac211e22bb5290&t=21692)
20. [Identifying Kurds in Bahman Ghobadi's Films: A Film Semiotic Study, Studies about Languages](https://kalbos.ktu.lt/index.php/KStud/article/view/12427)
21. [The Nature of Kurdish Film by Havi Ibrahim 1.pdf, lkff.co.uk](https://www.lkff.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/The-nature-of-Kurdish-film-by-Havi-Ibrahim-1.pdf)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2000s › Biographical and historical drama films 2000s › Released 2000 to 2005*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license