Up and Away is a sweet, very funny, very moving story of two
orphan brothers in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1990 who make it their mission to travel
to America and meet Superman. It
features two of the best child performances I can remember seeing recently, two
actors who handle both the comedy and tragedy of their story brilliantly and
memorably.
Director Karzan Kedar does a very good job of keeping a
light overall tone to a film which is frequently dealing with tough and
upsetting circumstances. Despite their
harsh lives, the brothers are still kids – and very funny kids at that. The fantasy of bring Superman back to save
Kurdistan is poignant – it drives the brothers and brings a lot of the humour
but the audience knows this will never happen.
The tense moments are incredibly tense (there were audible
sighs of relief when certain scenes were over) and the sadder moments are truly
affecting. The relationship between the
brothers is believable and touching, each with their own distinct
personality. The credible relationship
is one of things that stops the film tipping over into sentimentality during its
happier moments. Given the situation it
is tackling – two desperately poor orphans trying to escape their country
through some of the most dangerous means imaginable – it seems a bit
insensitive to describe it as massively entertaining but that is a measure of
how funny it can be and how memorable the two kids’ performances are.
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