"Writer and director, Jano Rosebiani, brings a surprising lightness to his material, which is further buoyed by a melodic soundtrack and Jonas Sacks's lovely landscape photography."
-Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

"There's a great deal of breathtaking scenery, and Rosebiani blends the travelogue vistas with a sense of what daily existence is like in these villages. There's a simplicity and directness in "Chaplin of the Mountains" that keeps it aloft."
-Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post

"To this viewer, what makes it most memorable is the portrait of ordinary Kurdish people shot on location in a remote but beautiful region. They are the real stars. Most of all, you will be mesmerized by a series of performances by Kurdish folk musicians and dancers who are celebrating the continuation of an ancient civilization against all odds.
-Louis Proyect, NY Critic / Blogger

Kurdish Travels with a Tramp
Jeannette Catsoulis
New York Times
    A charmingly shaggy road trip with clear political undertones, Chaplin of the Mountains winds its way across the Iraqi Kurdistan region, using silent movies to give voice to the troubles of a war-battered people. Our guides are two American film school graduates (Zack Gold and Bennet Viso) on a whimsical mission to introduce Charlie Chaplin to the residents of remote mountain villages... Full article...

'Chaplin of the Mountains' a Refreshing Journey
Farran Smith Nehme
New York Post
    Kurdish director Jano Rosebiani’s movie is about two NYU film students (Zack Gold and Bennett Viso) screening Charlie Chaplin movies for the peasants in the mountains of his native country. But the heart of the plot is Nazé (Estelle Bajou), a young woman who’s grown up in France, but whose mother was Kurdish, forced out during Saddam Hussein’s genocidal campaign in the late 1980s. Nazé wants to locate her mother’s village, and she joins up with the two American Chaplin-lovers, one of whom is half-Kurdish like herself... Full article...

Kurdish-American Filmmaker Brings Kurdistan to Hollywood
Joshua Thaisen
Rudaw.net
   LOS ANGELES - The premier of two Kurdish films in Hollywood this week may help bridge the cultural divide between Kurdistan and the West. Kurdish-American filmmaker... Full review...

The Year in Film
Louis Proyect
Counter Punch
I deliberately refrained from attaching the word “best” to the films listed below out of consideration that my personal taste weighed heavily. While I would have no problem defending the picks based on artistic merit... More...

Kurdish Diasporic Cinema: 'Chaplin of the Mountains' & 'One Candle, Two Candles'
Amir Sherifi & Ali Ashouri
The Kurdistan Tribune
   Kurdish diasporic cinema, traceable to the 1980s and 1990s, is vividly invoked in the work of Jano Rosebiani, the Kurdish American film maker... Full review...

Best Movies of 2013
Piero Scaruffi
www.scaruffi.com
    In his annual list of best and worst films, Italian music specialist and film critic Piero Scaruffi bases his ratings on reviews by popular film critics during the films' theatrical releases in the USA. For the 2013 list he tops his list with Alejandro Jodorowsky's "The Dance of Reality" as best film of the year with a rating of 7.8. Jano Rosebiani's "Chaplin of the Mountains" and "One Candle, Two Candles" fare well with a 6.5 rating squeezed between Roman Polanski's "La Venus A la Fourrure / Venus in Fur" and Robert Redford's "Company You Keep"... Full article...