HOUSE WITHOUT ROOF: PRESS
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"The multi-award-winning House Without Roof is an impressive debut for young Kurdish-German writer-director Soleen Yusef. Telling the story of three feuding siblings who return to their Kurdish homeland after the death of their mother, the film positively revels in its emotional twists and explosive confrontations."
Exberliner (DE), 03/2017
"On the odyssey through the archaic landscape, out of the old wounds of uprooting seeps the material for the emotional wide-screen panorama of a German-Kurdish search for identity. Director Soleen Yusef finds poetic in-between states for this: between fine humor and aching past, art-house long shots and Kurdish homeland film."
Süddeutsche Zeitung (DE), 08/2017
"You can very clearly tell that there is so much heart and soul in this film. A very moving work with a great power and a great honesty."
radioeins (DE), 09/2016
"House without Roof" is a flash of light from a world marked by war and poverty, but where there is hope despite everything."
Trømso Feedback (NO) 01/2017
"Shot under difficult conditions and with a low budget in the embattled areas, this debut film by Soleen Yusef achieves an astonishing coherence and great emotional power, which stems above all from the fact that the director concentrates entirely on her characters. She accompanies these torn people on this perilous journey with great inner sympathy and, as if in passing, conveys deeper insights into the country's desperate situation."
MDR Kultur (DE), 08/2017
"House Without Roof" takes us in an impressive way to a country that is both foreign and familiar to us. It brings us closer to the people there, but at the same time tells us what it means to be human."
film-rezensionen.de (DE), 08/2017
"In her family drama "House Without Roof," Kurdish-German director Soleen Yusef impressively tells of her generation's exhausting search for identity - and does so with a clear narrative voice and a sharp eye for her characters' inner struggles."
Stuttgarter Zeitung (DE), 08/2017
"With sensitivity and not without humor, Iraqi director Soleen Yusef depicts a country at war and a family that only seems to be disintegrating. Multiple award-winning, intensely acted family drama."
TV Spielfilm (DE), 08/2017
"Family secrets come to light in the glaring sun that burns over the breathtaking landscape. Yusef sets the scene impressively and dedicates a touching and remarkable debut to their homeland and the people there."
Filmtabs (DE), 08/2017
"A life between worlds, in a house without a roof, between the infinity of the sky, the stars and the stable, treadable earth. Until the stars turn into warplanes and the earth trembles under bombs. [...]
"House without Roof" is a film that, in the best sense, knows no borders."
epd Film (DE), 08/2017
"In her wonderful debut, Yusef not only succeeds in mirroring the political in private, she also creates an atmosphere full of fine humor and gentle poetry through the roles that are drawn with a lot of warmth right down to the secondary characters."
Zitty (DE), 08/2017
"A moving film about family, home and cohesion. [...] A film that impresses us in its truthfulness, makes us laugh with its lightness and laconic humor, and leaves us speechless in its sadness at the suffering that war brings to people in this part of the world."
Jury, International Film Festival Munich (DE), 07/2016
"Successfully exploring family ties and identity issues, this road movie deals with the painful past and wounds of uprooting."
Unabhängiges FilmFest Osnabrück (DE), 10/2016
"The success of Alan, Jan and Liya at the end of their long journey, the numerous adventures, from chase to comedy and romance, is not limited to the fulfillment of their mother's last wish, this is only the superficial goal. That the three find each other, learn to know and appreciate the value of the other is the real success.The siblings needed this shared experience to really understand what they mean to each other, what magic love unleashes and how friendship breaks down barriers."
Goethe Institut Ägypten (DE), 05/2017
"Soleen Yusef's Kurdistan odyssey "House without Roof" is a humanistic, powerful masterpiece. It is a blessing with what strength and with what inner suffering, humor and pain the director presents her traumatizing story to the viewer. The look into these faces, it will hurt in your own soul for a lifetime."
Arthouse-cinema.de (DE), 06/2018
"An intimate yet sweeping journey between Germany and Iraqi Kurdistan, Soleen Yusef’s stunning drama keenly evokes the care and the tension that can exist among siblings. Death emerges as a physical and a spiritual return, compelling the characters to go to extraordinary lengths for their loved ones."
Mubi (UK), 11/2022