RIFLE RANGE BOY

About Elly (Iranian; 2009) Director: Asghar Farhadi Sometimes, we think a white lie would not hurt. Along with the lie, we squeeze in a little mischief. We justify our lying by convincing ourselves that it is all good in the grander scheme of things. Little do realise of its repercussions. To cover the embarrassment of one's untruth being discovered and maybe to uphold the white lie, there is a need for more untruths. The trouble with truth is that it has a funny way of showing up at all the wrong times. The lattice of lies will eventually crumble. Unless the individual has perfected the art of the sleigh of hands, the bluff will fall flat. To add insult to injury, God forbid if anything untoward happened, all the blame would fall squarely on the person who initiated the white lie and the good intentions! This is precisely what happens in this story. Old classmates, three couples with their kids and another divorced classmate decided to spend a few days by the beach. Sepideh, who o...

Forushande (The Salesman, 2016, Persian) Director: Asghar Farhadi A wise man once said that we should not pass judgement when we are angry. Instead, we should suspend sentencing until we have cooled down. At the heights of emotions, our faculties are blurred, our vision is clouded, reasoning is obscured by raging hormones. Sometimes, there is pressure from without to act or set an example out of a scapegoat! And there would be a group who would insist that God's justice must be done on Earth, so as not to incur His wrath. It is funny how the bar always changes when the affected party is our own flesh and bone. And how we ask for leniency when the offending is our kin! Perhaps if we could be in the shoes of the other, we would realise how, sometimes, things are just not so black or white. This is exactly what advocates against capital punishments are trying to say. In keeping with the Iranian tradition of making simple movies with profound meanings, 'The Salesman' ...

Khane-ye doust kodjast (Persian, خانه دوست کجاست, Where Is the Friend's Home?; 1987) \ Directed and written by Abbas Kiarostami This film is the first of Kiarostami's Koker trilogy. Just like its successors, it brings to the fore the day to day living, beliefs and trappings of a typical Iranian in its poor countrysides. This time, it looks at it from the eyes of a young school boy, Ahmadpoor. He has a big burden on his shoulders. He had brought home his friend Reza's writing book by mistake. And he is worried for his friend. His teacher had specifically told Reza that he would be expelled from school if he persistently neglects to finish his school homework. So, as a loyal friend, Ahmad feels duty-bound to pass the book to him. The trouble is that Ahmad's overworked mother keeps asking him to mind his baby kid and do chores around the house. His pleas to his busy mother are drowned in the wailing of the crying child. So, when his mother asks him to buy bread,...

Ten (Persian; 2007) Director: Abbas Kiarostami No, this is not Bo Derek starred 1979 romantic comedy! It is an Iranian minimalist movie done by an Iranian filmmaker extraordinaire, Abbas Kiarostami. Due to a rather hostile environment in Iran, moviemakers have to resort to ingenious ways to film without creating much of public fanfare. It basically involves two cameras placed in the dashboard area; one pointed at the driver and another at the front passenger of a car. There are ten snippets involving the main character, a woman, and her interaction with her son, her sister,  an elderly lady, a prostitute and a friend. We overhear her conversation with the various characters. From their conversations, as they travel through the streets, we can make a composite picture of her life and the life of the ordinary people in Iran. The woman (the protagonist) picks up her son. Through their conversation, we realise that the woman has divorced her husband by falsely proclaiming that ...

Life, and Nothing More... (1992, Persian,   زندگی و دیگر هیچ  Zindagi va digar hich) Director: Abbas Kiarostami This film is considered the second instalment in the Koker trilogy - the first, being 'Where is the friend's home' (1987) and the third is 'Through the Olive Tree' (1995). It is a semi-documentary film that narrates the tale of a movie director and his son who return to the site of the first film to locate its actors. They revisit the area, which in real life, had been hit by a devastating earthquake. It showcases how people in this tragedy hit zone find solace in continuing their lives. Devastation is everywhere. Loved one are dead and dreams are shattered. Homes are destroyed, and the remaining water supply is rudimentary. But, life, the essence of our existence continues. People still manage to put on a smile. They still marry even though it is still within the 'mourning period'. Their rationale was that the dead did not see it coming, b...

Taste of Cherry (1997, Iranian) Director, Written, Produced: Abbas Kiarostami This may not be your typical movie that you may want to watch to unwind to retire from the stresses of life. It is a slow moving neorealist minimalist movie which is typical of many Iranian films. This time around, the whole movie is shot within and from the confines of a Range Rover. The scenery outside is no Garden of Eden but the drab landscape of a quarry. Apparently, this method had to be done as there were many restrictions in filming there in Iran. This movie has no beginning and no end. This is very much like our daily lives. We live a fraction of time only to experience a brief moment of the world, and we pass, only to have our places taken over by a new pair of recruit. The main character of the movie, Mr Bodii, is seen wandering around town in his SUV, looking for a pair of helping hand. He seems picky with the person he wants to hire. We are left wondering what type of support he is looking...

The Sea and the Hills  The Life of Hussain Najadi (An Autobiography; 2012) He survived the feared Bahraini intelligence who worked under the hawkish eyes of their British colonial masters as he stirred his leftist ideas after the Algiers uprising through his rebel movement at the age of 16. The Bedouin travellers took a special liking to his as he escaped to Beirut through the mirage inducing hostile environment of the Arabic desert and its scorching heat. Somehow he even escaped the infamous Iranian SAVAK police. The storm aboard the vessel along the Mediterranean Seas did not dampen his spirits. By twist of fate he missed an ill-fated Swiss flight which crashed soon after take-off. And he averted an invitation aboard a Filipino flight which later crashed. He even survived an automobile accident on the notorious Malaysian highways. To cap it all, he even endured 8 years of imprisonment in a Bahraini prison after incurring the wrath of its royalty. He raised the ladder of...

Close up (Persian, 1989) Director Abbas Kiarostami This film opened the highly high quality Iranian cinematic scene to the Western world. In fact this drama-documentary like offering is hailed by some as the best Iranian film ever made. It uses the Italian type of neo-realism technique of film making and the French way of self expressionism to get its message across. The director heard of an unusual case of impersonation in a magazine and decided to cease his shooting and to cover the events. A jobless make stand accused of impersonating as a famous director, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, to lure a middle class man into acting. The accused is a self professed crazed fan of Makhmalbaf, who whilst travelling in a bus, told a white lie to the lady of the Ahankhah family and pretty soon befriended the family. One lie after another, the accused, Hossein Sabzian, managed to obtain some money for his alleged filming. The family became suspicious when he was not aware of 'his' recent conf...

Nader and Simin: A Separation (2012) Suppression of expression, oppression, restriction and poverty are said to be strong motivators for artistic expressions. If that is true, then looking at the number of good films and great directors being churned out of Iran since the days of the Shah, you would be forgiven if you thought that living condition in that country was appalling and has not changed. This movie, a winner of the Foreign Film category of the Academy, starts with a couple (Nader and Simin) at divorce court applying for a divorce. Simin (the wife) wants to leave the country for better life for her and their 11 year old daughter whilst Nader (husband) refuses to barge as he has to care for his father with Alzheimer's Disease. Nader also refuses to allow his daughter to migrate. Simin leaves her husband to stay with her family. After finding high and low for domestic help to care for the father, Nader finally hires Houjat, a financially challenged lady with a short te...