On location: Kurds pitch their story to Hollywood

Oliver Stone couldn’t have staged a more surreal scene: Balancing wine glasses in their hands, a group of Hollywood executives boogied to the Beach Boys in the foothills of northern Iraq as bursts of fireworks lit up the night sky.

The Fourth of July garden party, at a slick new hotel on the outskirts of the northern city of Irbil, was just one stop on an elaborate government-hosted tour aimed at luring Hollywood money and talent to this largely autonomous and relatively peaceful Kurdish enclave. Among the revelers were potential investors, diplomats, Kurdish officials and representatives of the U.S.-led forces in Iraq, in addition to the coterie of Hollywood types.

As the rest of Iraq plunged into violence, returning Kurdish exiles and foreign investors poured billions of dollars into the country’s three northern provinces, transforming the two main cities into giant construction sites, bristling with scaffolding and cranes. Housing developments and shopping centers are rising from the dirt. Deals to tap the region’s massive oil reserves are underway.

Now the Kurds, an ethnic minority who were persecuted by Saddam Hussein’s Arab regime, say they are ready for their close-up.

The Kurdistan regional government is rolling out the red carpet for the motion picture business, hoping that Hollywood can help showcase their land, culture and tortured history for the world.

“It is through the movies of Hollywood that we know what is happening in the United States,” Nawjad Mawlood, governor of Irbil province, told the Hollywood entourage that had traveled thousands of miles to hear his pitch. “And it is very important to see our place in your movies.”

Indeed, the Kurds don’t have to look far to see what the globalization of Hollywood means, both culturally and economically. Abu Dhabi and Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, are investing millions in theme parks and theater complexes. New Zealand and Australia are vying to attract film production with their state-of-the-art digital studios and breathtaking vistas for location shooting. India’s Reliance ADA Group is negotiating to invest $1.2 billion in DreamWorks SKG, the first major link between Bollywood and Hollywood.

Kurdish filmmakers hope they too can join forces with Hollywood -- even though insurance will be hard to get, there’s not much in the way of production facilities or skilled crews, and coddled stars won’t have the luxurious amenities to which they’re accustomed.

Not surprisingly in a region where many leaders were until a few years ago in the mountains fighting Hussein’s army, Kurdistan’s own film industry is far from off the ground. The few movies made locally are shot digitally because there are no labs to process film. Nor are there theaters to show movies (though several are planned). Virtually all the DVDs for sale are pirated.

But, said George Braunstein, a lawyer and producer who was part of the group, it’s clear what Hollywood can bring to Kurdistan: an injection of cash into the local economy.

“If I am General Motors and I want to come in, you are going to have to put in roads, lay down power lines and spend millions of dollars on infrastructure for me,” Braunstein said. “When film crews come in . . . they work with what is there, and they spend a huge amount of money on food, hotels, gas, not to mention the jobs that come in.”

The Kurds’ flirtation with Hollywood began when they hired the Michael Russell Group, a Los Angeles movie marketing firm, to help sell a Kurdish-language film in the U.S.

“Jani Gal” (“Agony of a Nation”) was produced by Hero Ibrahim Ahmed, the wife of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and a former guerrilla fighter. Adapted from a novel written by her late father, it tells the story of a man who endures years of prison after he inadvertently gets caught up in a demonstration while searching for a midwife for his pregnant wife.

After working with MRG on the film, Najat Abdullah, the Kurdish government’s cultural attache in Washington, told the firm that what he really wanted was advice on developing the Kurdish film industry.

MRG’s Stephen Locascio approached 10 Hollywood types about visiting the region to see what it had to offer. Three agreed to go, including Kristin Jones, senior vice president at Walt Disney Co.’s Miramax Films unit, and Jorge Camara, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., which organizes the Golden Globe Awards.

Jones was at the Cannes Film Festival in May when she received word about the trip from her assistant in Los Angeles.

“It was about 2 in the morning. I was finally in my room, my head was spinning from the 85 meetings I had had that day and I literally got an e-mail that said, ‘Feel like going to Kurdistan?’ ” she said, laughing. “I thought: Is this a joke?”

But Jones is serious about where she thinks the future of Hollywood rests: “The growth in the film industry isn’t in the United States, it’s abroad,” she said.

Everyone in the group admitted to qualms about flying to Iraq. Braunstein, however, eventually decided to bring his business partner and wife, Laura, and even their 22-year old son, Clark, along for the experience.

It came as a surprise to the Hollywood contingent that most Kurds welcome Americans, whom they credit with shielding them from Hussein’s brutality since the imposition of a no-fly zone over their area in the 1990s.

Still, the Kurdish authorities left nothing to chance. The delegation was whisked around at high speed in armored Land Cruisers, accompanied by a large retinue of Kalashnikov-wielding bodyguards in suits and dark shades.

Their itinerary was only divulged at the last minute, which caused some anxiety among the type-A personalities that were used to being in charge. Cold showers and patchy Internet access were other unpleasant surprises.

But those were overwhelmed by the region’s majestic peaks, ancient citadel and bazaars, and the people’s anguished tales of massacres and revolt.

“Every place you put a camera would be a unique background for a great story,” Braunstein said. “It’s a very exotic location.”

Good locations are not enough, however. Braunstein got down to business at a meeting in Irbil with the region’s acting culture minister, Medhi Mendelawi.

As long as the State Department has an advisory posted on its website warning Americans not to travel to Iraq, no insurer that works with the major studios would provide coverage to film in the country, Braunstein explained to Mendelawi.

Kurdish officials have hired lobbyists in Washington to try to have the warning amended to exclude their region. Negotiations are also underway with foreign-based companies to provide insurance locally. That way, Mendelawi said, investors could purchase $10 million of coverage right here in Kurdistan.

“We’re going to need more than that,” Braunstein cut in.

That was an example, Mendelawi assured him. It could also be $100 million.

“Now you’re talking,” Braunstein said.

He advised the government to set up a film commission to vet prospective projects and provide filmmakers with information about locations, crews and equipment in the region. He also suggested they invest in a professional film school and begin enforcing copyright laws.

When Braunstein finished, Mendelawi took a deep breath.

“Thank you for your ideas,” he said. “We’ll work on it. Hopefully we will achieve something.”

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alexandra.zavis@latimes.com