** (Two stars)
More documentary than feature film, My Marlon and Brando tells the true-life story of Turkish actress Ayca Damgaci (who plays herself) and her Iraqi-Kurdish lover, Hama Ali Khan. The couple met while working together as actors in Ayca's hometown, Istanbul. Hama Ali then returns to Northern Iraq, and, as war looms, they are able to communicate only through patchy phonecalls and Hama Ali's fawning and funny video love letters. Frustrated at the separation—and doubting her lover's protestations that it is dangerous for him to return to her—hotheaded Ayca packs her bags and makes her way to Iraq. It's excruciating to watch her reliving this (clearly painful) journey, stubbornly blundering her way through snowcapped mountains and bleak hills to the Iraqi border, only to find it closed. The pair then make alternate plans to meet in Iran (where Ayca, despite being a politically aware person from nearby Turkey, appears somehow baffled by Iran's strictly enforced religious dress codes and social etiquette). Finally, when our impatient heroine reaches the remote mountain hamlet where she has arranged to meet her man, she finds herself waiting, and waiting, and waiting...—Clare Lambe Malchman, senior associate features editor
[This is a TONY staff review, written for the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. It is not considered an official review and should not be read as such. Please think of it as a casual impression from a movie-loving friend.]