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19 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
2005 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), 17 September 2005
8/10
Author: Jamester from Canada

I saw this at the 2005 TIFF to a packed audience.

This was an eye-opening movie in a couple ways.

Not only is this drama about a blind Iranian man who unexpectedly comes upon sight during a routine eye operation in Paris, but it opened my eyes to the value of sight in life.

The main character in this movie has been living life without sight for 38 years, so much so that we see the habits, the challenges, the braille reading, and the support his friends and family give him and which he is subtly dependent upon. Yet when this miraculous chance to see gives him, shall we say, a second chance, what does he do with it? In fact what would anyone do with it? What I liked most about this was that the challenge posed to the lead character and the choices he made were so very real with the challenges and dilemma of his choices and frustration clear. This made me consider the choices *I* have been making in life. If I were given a second chance with anything, what would *I* do with it? This was a thought-provoking movie that took me into a world I have never experienced. And while I have seen movies about blind people, this movie really seemed to capture the view of life from this particular blind man: his challenges; his decisions; and most importantly, his emotional state.

This is a smart and very real movie that was moving, thought-provoking. Visually speaking, the weaving of light with dark scenes allows the story to further come to life giving a final illumination on a story that shares, sympathizes and delivers.

This is a well-done piece of work! Congratulations!

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13 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Beed e majnoon, 21 January 2007
10/10
Author: martonejames from United States

I have been deeply moved by "The Willow Tree," which I saw this evening as part of an Iranian film series at the Freer Gallery in Washington DC. I am not sure that any Western culture could ever produce something as beautiful, but I hope all westerners see it. It has impressed positively and permanently. I was most moved by the scene of the hero coming back to Iran, and seeing his mother, and then again, when the mother comes to his house after his wife has left. The most beautiful, was our hero looking for the papers in the pond, and finding that special one. The ending is magnificent, as it allows us to ponder which is better, to continue blind, or be blessed again with sight. But in either case he seems condemned. Thank you. James

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13 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
Look within to find your true vision, 4 September 2005
8/10
Author: corrosion-2

This film can be described as a companion piece to Majidi's highly acclaimed Color of Paradise. In that movie, in which a father saw his blind son as a burden and not as a blessing, we (& eventually the father) began to "see" the world from the blind boy's view and in doing so saw a much richer, meaningful world. Here, the characters of the father and the son are embodied in a single person: Yusef who after 38 years of being blind regains his sight. What he sees, however, is quite different to what he "saw" as a blind man, and not necessarily more beautiful or rewarding. Majidi takes the viewer to a higher, more spiritual world and in doing so creates another masterpiece. Majidi's movies are visually stunning and have such a profound effect on the viewer that when we leave the cinema, we see the world in a different light. Parviz Parastoui, one of the best actors in the Iranian cinema and theatre, is outstanding as Yusef. Also worth mentioning is Mahmood Kelari's exceptional photography. As in all Majidi films, there are scenes which will stay with you long after the movie is over.

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9 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Willow tree Iranian movie a great one to see!, 3 August 2007
Author: ramesh ramakrishnan iyer (ramesh@re5.org) from Singapore

A very good movie. The actors and the director have done an awesome job. The photography is pure poetry. The places and the locations are very evocative. The story is very deep. It makes you see the world with totally different eyes. A simple plot of a blind man regaining his sight is turned into into a masterpiece of emotions. Some scenes in the movie are really powerful and are there to stay within you, deep inside. Yusef the hero of the film is a strong character. Depite his blindness, as a professor he has done a lot and won the respect and the hearts of the people. But when he gets his sights back the world around him is totally different and he struggles even more. He is not able to cope with what he sees and his image of his wife and the family and his mother all confuse him. He finds his friends wife attractive and becomes obsessed with meeting her and hearing her voice etc. The scenes depicting Yusef's desires and the confusion are a marvel in direction and acting. There are some over dramatic elements in this movie that could have been avoided but even those scenes have a point in touching the viewer a bit deep and making the point. All in All a superb film. Makes one wonder

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7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
A Nutshell Review: The Willow Tree, 20 August 2007
9/10
Author: DICK STEEL from Singapore

Sometimes God works in mysterious ways, and us mortal man have absolutely no idea what to make of it, opting for the most parts to blame the big guy when things don't go our way, only to find out that the fault lies in ourselves. No, I'm not suddenly pious and wanting to spread the word, but Majid Majidi's The Willow Tree evoked such a feeling and reminder to myself, that it's always so easy to blame "somebody else", even though that someone could be the guy up there.

I haven't seen much of Majid Majidi's works, but from what I have in just Children of Heaven, and now The Willow Tree, I can't wait to watch a whole lot more. The stories might seem simple - few key characters (lovable too I might add), gorgeously shot, and you might think you have the plot all wrapped up, there's always this beauty in the simplicity of it all, and its powerful underlying message ever so subtle, in no way sledge-hammering itself on you at all. Somehow I feel that there's so much enveloping the movie, that I'm simply amazed at how they are all packaged together in a nicely paced movie, without the need to be butt- numbing.

Youssef (Parviz Parastui) is a blind university professor, who spends his time playing with his young daughter, and has his wife assist him with his work. From the onset, it's a happy little family, except that Youssef has a dream, that he could one day regain his sight and see again. Sometimes I wonder if able folks like us take things for granted naturally, and if only we lose it, do we start appreciating and missing something at all. Majid has for the first minute placed us in Youssef's shoes, and listening to his innermost thoughts and dreams, one ponders.

While faith is important, and I would think if I were in Youssef's shoes, I would also choose to turn to religion as a pillar of strength, there's this little warning of being careful with what you wish for, as sometimes, what you think is best for yourself, isn't true at all. If you made promises to the big man, make sure you can fulfill those promises, and not let it ring empty. We follow Youssef's journey and understand his fears, frustrations and hopes, coupled with his fall from grace and redemption. The Willow Tree leaves things wide open, but you can only hope for the best. I like the way how Youssef is forced to choose, and I actually felt pity for the guy as he loses himself, like the saying goes, because of his straying eye. I wonder too, if our gift of sight somehow will sometimes be the attributing factor, or seed the beginnings of mistrust, just because our eye sees something that our minds interpret differently, or fantasize.

And the movie couldn't work without the excellent soundtrack, or the commanding performance by the lead Parviz Parastui. He has one one hand made Youssef a likable fellow, yet managed in the same movie to make us despise his actions, with a tinge of pity, and at times, just wanting to slap him out of his arrogance. It's been a long while since I actually cared for a character, and want to reach out to him - as the bystanders usually have the better view of any situation - and to direct him, just as how you would a blind person, to avoid the pitfalls that seem set to dawn on him.

At another level, The Willow Tree has indeed opened my eyes to more of Iran, instead of those ra-ra sanctions filled news bulletins demonizing the country as a whole. I thought that through film, I see a little more of a country caught on celluloid, depicting the same hopes, dreams, and even challenges that folks in the country grapple with too. And with such intelligent stories from their filmmakers, you wonder about their rich culture, and also realize that you don't need big sets and big moments to create an impact - the little things in life that you can put into stories to tell, work just as majestically.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Unforgettable film, 24 September 2006
9/10
Author: Carl from Australia

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Cinema began as a purely visual medium. The shock and fright that the Lumière brothers caused in their virgin audience came about because seeing the world through the lens of a camera is like seeing for the first time—witness Dziga Vertov's 1929 paean to the new medium, Man With a Movie Camera, and you get a sense of this fascination. Thus, film is perfectly suited to director Majid Majidi's exploration in The Willow Tree of a blind man regaining his sight. After a quietly foreboding passage of voice-over, the movie opens its eyes on a scene of sylvan innocence, with a father and his young daughter racing sticks down a stream. We soon learn that the father, Youssef, a university professor, is blind. At home, his wife, Roya, sits and translates pages of texts into Braille for him. When he sits down to read them in his courtyard, a sudden gust of wind blows them away and Roya has to scramble across the garden to retrieve them, while Youssef grasps desperately at whatever he can feel near him. He is cared for, he is loved, and loves in return but we are given a sense of his dependence, his powerlessness in the face of nature's occasional rushes. Having flown to Paris to treat a possible cancer under his eye, he undergoes a cornea transplant that should restore his sight, which he lost when he was 8 years old. In a tremulously powerful section of the movie, Youssef impatiently peels back the padding around his eyes to the shocking sensation of light. Still with the carefully lifted feet of a blind man, he pads excitedly into the hospital corridor as a single tear of blood falls from his still- scarred eyes. It is a moment of subtle horror—after all, a new sense is terrifying. The Willow Tree is unrelenting cinema. It challenges our notion of perception and gives us the visceral rush of seeing as though for the first time. When Youssef returns to Iran he is greeted by a crowd of family and friends. In a scene that will stay with me for a very long time, the soundtrack drops away as Youssef looks at these faces without recognition—which one is Roya? Is it the beautiful young woman with the video camera? Youssef hopes so. And there is the tragedy—with all this renewed sensation, the reference points of the past need to be realigned, the world which satisfies the other senses might not satisfy the eyes, and in that moment at the airport, Majidi brings to bear both the revelatory joy of the new and the plummeting realisation of how much was lacking before. As Youssef, Parviz Parastui is astonishing. It is his performance, as well as that of Afarin Obeisi as his mother, that lifts The Willow Tree above anyone reproaching it with sentimentality. It is a deeply religious film, in the best sense of the word—a moral fable that is not moralistic.

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Give me another chance, Mister Hunter. I am just a fawn born in this mountain..., 23 August 2009
8/10
Author: shutterbug_iconium from Türkiye

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Majid Majidi's Willow Tree tells the story of Yusuf (Parvis Parastui) who was blinded in a fireworks accident when he was eight. Though he has been deprived of light and brightness for so long, he has a lovable, caring wife and a lovely daughter. After 38 years of blindness, Yusuf has a tumor beneath his eye so he goes to a Paris clinic to get some tests. Doctors do a several tests and they do cornea transplant on his eyes. The man who has lived in darkness and gloom for so long can't wait for the bandages to be taken off in the morning and he removes them himself.After his eyes catch the light the first thing he enjoys watching is an ant carrying a tiny bit of food across the window bar which is actually a diligent worker, a servant of God which can carry something as big as itself and never protests and surrenders to its role that is cut out for itself. Parvis Parastui's performance as Yusuf who walks in a gleeful hesitation, in an unsteady childish hobbling down the hospital corridor without needing anyone for the first time after 38 years,is just a cinematic tour-de-force which can't be forgotten easily. After he is back in Iran Yusus tries to grapple with the new life he asked from God. Apparently his small paradise of four trees and a house is shattered by the perceptional difference he has seen in the real world and the understanding,thankful,spiritually protected world he had himself with God. The temptation creeps in and the serenity he had in his gloom disappears.He feels attracted to Peri (Leila Otadi), his uncle's young,ravishing,stunning wife.With a transformed sense of moral obligation,another day he overlooks a pickpocket snatching somebody's wallet in a public transport vehicle. Yusuf who seem to have lost all his connection with his God, with his comparative serenity estranges his caring wife and dear mother too.All alone,while his eyes starting not to respond to the transplantation he seems to have lost his sight again. He gets a letter from his the man he met at the clinic in Paris,A man who was gradually losing his sight because of some shrapnel in his head from the Iraq/Iran war. In the letter says the man: "Tell me what's worth seeing and I'll tell you what's not worth seeing.Ever since I've practiced not seeing, I've seen many wonderful things. How much have you been seeing? Are your eyes satisfied? Did you see the willow tree? I'd like to know if it still brings you luck?" Embittered by his own transformation, Yusuf finds the note he put between the pages of the Masnavi (by Rumi)on which he wrote:

""I'm the one you deprived of the beauties of the world and who never complained. Instead of light and brightness, I lived in darkness and gloom and I didn't protest. I found happiness and peace in this small paradise. Are all these years of suffering not enough that you now want to cause me even more suffering? Will I come back from this trip to my loving family? Will this illness bring me to my knees? To whom should I complain about what you are doing to me? I beg of you to show me more compassion. Don't take my life away."

Knowing that his biggest mistake was not knowing God well, he asks for a new chance hoping that God has not crossed him off his own book of compassion book and the diligent worker ant reappears. Majid Majidi could be a great director indeed but what you will remember after seeing this movie will be the unforgettable performance of Parvis Parastui overshadowing everyone else about this movie.

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