"Intended as the first part in a trilogy examining contemporary Kurdish experience, self-taught film-maker Rosebiani’s powerful and moving feature tackles head-on one of the most violent episodes in the ongoing oppression of his beleaguered people...The film is at once intimate and expansive, detailing the cycle of hard lives against an unrelenting, challenging but also bleakly beautiful landscape.
"...It’s an authentic, compassionate and valuable expression of witness, memory and shared humanity."
                                                                                                                     -Gareth Evans, 46th London Film Festival

"The film takes us to the center of the volcano, so to speak, with a film whose heart and soul are as big and beautiful as the eyes of its brightest star, Pisheng Berzinji, as the orphan Jiyan, 10... not to mention the whole assortment of delightful characters who populate this drama, some who'll make you smile, some who'll make you cry, and all who will make you care."
                                                                                                                                 -John Dolen, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

"Filmed with a patient, lyrical humanism plainly inspired by such Iranian masters as Kiarostami and Panahi, Jiyan manages to unflinchingly address the horrors man can inflict upon his fellows without surrendering to cynicism or despair."
                                                                                                                                 -28th Seattle International Film Festival

"Rosebiani... manages to keep his storytelling spry, humorous and as uplifting as it is heartbreaking, while taking us through a litany of the town’s ills."
                                                                                                                 -Eric Moore, 11th Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema

"Jiyan is a symbol for Kurdish survival - for the vulnerability of the nation but especially, for its optimism regarding life; the flowers of the protagonist contrast with her scarred face. Jano Rosebiani does not seek revenge, even if one senses his bitterness. He is equally interested in the insecurity the future holds as he is in the poetry and the vitality of the orphans. This dualism is the source of the film's poetic lyricism, of its opening and closing images."
                                                                                                                                     -19th Jerusalem Film Festival

"[Cinematographer] Koutaiba’s genuine eye for the beauty and hardship on the faces of the Kurdish people is very impressive indeed...Truly inspiring films like Jiyan should be cherished and talented filmmakers like Jano Rosebiani should be embraced."
                                                                                                                                      -Jaab Mees, Talking Pictures, London

Links to Reviews

- "The Walking Wounded," Davi Lipfert, Offoffoff.com, June 13, 2003

- Sky Movies.com, Tim Evans, February 2003

- Film Four, February 2003

- Philip French, The Observer, Sunday, February 16, 2003

- Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, Friday February 14, 2003

- Jamie Russel, BBC International, February 5, 2003

- John Dolen, "As FLIFF ends, extra Jiyan a fine touch", Nov. 15, 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

- Adrian Bailey, January, 2002, Liverpool, UK

- "Jiyan Means Life in Kurdish; In English, Death Will Do", Kani Xulam, AKIN, June 30, 2003

- "Movie looks at life in Halabja..." Ali Jaafar The Daily Star, London, June 21, 2003

- Joe Bendel, Epoch Times,NY, Jiyan Review, Oct. 27, 2009