Sib (1998)

Director:

Samira Makhmalbaf

Writers:

Mohsen Makhmalbaf (writer)
Samira Makhmalbaf (writer)

Release Date:

19 February 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

After twelve years of imprisonment by their own parents, two sisters are finally released by social workers to face the outside world for the first time. |

Plot Keywords:

Social Worker | Ignorance | Mental Retardation | Tradition | Neighbor

Awards:

7 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Massoumeh Naderi	...	Massoumeh
Zahra Naderi	...	Zahra
Ghorban Ali Naderi	...	Father
Azizeh Mohamadi	...	Azizeh
Zahra Saghrisaz

Also Known As:

The Apple (Canada: English title) (USA)
La pomme (France)

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

Iran | France

Language:

Persian

Color:

Color

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | France:U | Sweden:Btl | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:PG

Company:

Hubert Bals Fund

Trivia:

Samira Makhmalbaf was able to shoot this film with film stock left over from her father's film _Sokhout (1998)_.

Movie Connections:

References Poto and Cabengo (1980)

From Darkness to Light

The star-spangled night sky is accompanied by an unimaginable cold. Despite the twenty degrees below freezing I step outside, urged by an irresistible impulse. And I'm already crossing the mountains, driving on a hardened surface of snow. The next cinema is twenty miles away, and tonight it offers a special alternative program. I go inside and suddenly something magic happens: The cold outside world is forgotten, and instead I feel inundated by the warmth and the inspiration of the recent Iranian cinema. I watch "Sib" ("The Apple"), the first movie of 18-year-old Samira Makhmalbaf. It's a semi-documentary, a film about an authentic social case, in which the protagonists portray themselves: A father, a 65-year-old beggar, and a blind mother keep their twin daughters shut in their house for more than eleven years. They are denounced by their neighbors, and a social worker steps in to tell the parents what they have to do. But she has to combat the stubbornness of the father who claims that his daughters are like flowers, and if you let them go out into the sun they will fade and eventually perish.

Precisely the opposite happens: Once liberated, the girls, who at the beginning are unable to coordinate their movements and whose rare attempts of speech are mostly inaudible or incomprehensible, not only start to discover the world but also slowly begin to blossom out. Beams of light are illuminating their eyes as they find new friends and learn how to communicate. In the end they even succeed in sweeping away the barriers of ignorance of their father and lead him on the way to a brighter future.

It is stunning to watch an almost complete transformation like this taking place. The change is both physical and spiritual, and it is a step towards a better world. This movie is a weapon against the void, a remedy for all kinds of hopelessness: it fills you, it enlightens you, it dispels the dark shadows of your life.