Sag-haye velgard (2004)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Marzieh Makhmalbaf

Writer:

Marzieh Makhmalbaf (writer)

Release Date:

15 June 2005 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Two children are orphaned in post-Taliban Afghanistan. |

Awards:

3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Gol-Ghotai	...	Gol-Ghotai
Zahed	...	Zahed
Agheleh Rezaie	...	The mother
Sohrab Akbari	...	Atef, the guard
Jamil Ghanazideh	...	Angry guardian
Agheleh Shamsollah	...	Female cell guardian
Razeddin Sayyar	...	Old crazy man
Maydeh Gol	...	Grand-mother
Ghomri Valad Amir	...	Woman in a burqa
Shah Mahmood Golbahari	...	Rose seller
Emameddin Vakil	...	Cinema teller
Akhtar Abdolaziz	...	Cart driver
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Twiggy	...	Dog

Also Known As:

Chiens égarés (France)
Stray Dogs (International: English title)

Runtime:

Italy:93 min | Argentina:93 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival) | Singapore:93 min

Country:

Iran | France

Language:

Persian

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:12A | Argentina:13 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Kabul, Afghanistan

Company:

Makhmalbaf Productions

Quotes:

[subtitled version]
Gol-Ghotai: Zahed, did you tell dad what mother said? Did you tell him?
Zahed: Yes.
Gol-Ghotai: Did he feel sorry for us?
Zahed: He said: "I went to fight in a Holy War. Your mother married again. Didn't she love me?"
Gol-Ghotai: She married again because we were hungry. Now that man is dead.
Zahed: Dad said that's good, and if mum dies, they can make love in Hell.
Gol-Ghotai: What's Hell?

Movie Connections:

Features Ladri di biciclette (1948)

Stray Dogs

I was traveling in the tram and came across a Dutch magazine. I do not know Dutch – not to read or write or speak, but just to make myself familiar with the local magazine, I browsed through it. The magazine gave weekly events. At the end of the magazine – it gives reviews of movies. I was attracted to a photograph of a poor small child and a dog running in the midst of desert. This image attracted me and I started trying to read the Dutch review and to some extend understood that it was an Iranian movie set in Afghanistan. The review ended by the words of the movie "The Bicycle Thieves". This interested me more.

Amsterdam publishes once a week – an English newspaper called "The Weekly". It is delivered at offices, hotels, some key newspaper stalls all around Amsterdam – but because of limited circulation is exhausted within a day. I was able to get hold of this news weekly. It elaborately gives film reviews – and after reading all the reviews, I came across the review of "The Stray Dogs". I read it, and came to know that it is a movie that is inspired from "The Bicycle Thieves". It is also an acclaimed movie and had won awards at various international festivals. I found out that it was only running in the evening shows at Museum Theatre in Vondelpark.

I asked my colleague Mr.Andreas Hensel – who was interested in neo-realistic movies like "The Bicycle Thieves", whether he was interested? He told me that he was, but was engaged for a couple of days. Thus I decided to go to see the movie alone.

I was excited! I knew the movie was in Arabic with Dutch sub-titles – but I was undeterred.

There were only four people in the movie hall – two females and two males.

This movie as I mentioned earlier is inspired by "The Bicycle Thieves" and it is a tribute to the long lasting impact it has left on the movie making art. Even after more than 50 years – it is so heartening to know that some good movies are inspired and made on neo-realistic cinema.

Like "The Bicycle Thieves" the story has a simple story line.

The story is set in Afghanistan – during the Tabilan years. It starts with two children – an elder boy and younger girl – who are shown as rag-pickers – rescuing a stray dog – from chasing kids who want to torch the dog to fire in a cave hole. Immediately after the first scene one gets to know the huge cinematic backdrop the visuals are providing. Rough and sandy terrain of Afghanistan is brilliantly captured by the director.

The mother of these children is imprisoned by the authorities (due to language constraint I could not understand why) and every evening these children get access to go into the prison to sleep with their mother. But due to change of policy – the guards do not allow the children to go into the prison.

The children try desperately to get access to go and meet and sleep with their mother – they beg, cry, and even get angry and throw stones at the guard. But un-successful in all their attempts – they try to steal something – thinking that their stealing would lead them to being caught and land them up in the prison.

In their quest we are exposed to the nearly tribal culture of male dominated aggressive Afghanistan culture. The dog fight scenes, the robbing of the cows head by the children, the stealing of vegetable bag of a lady etc. are pictured poignantly. One feels sorry for the boys – because in all their attempts they are caught – smacked a little and set off free.

But the cruel culture of Afghanistan in the back-drop leaves the audience's stomach churning with disgust. This lead to one female audience leaving the movie hall in mid-way, giving away sighs of anguish on the incredible harsh images shown of Afghan cultural life.

At one point of time, the children are inspired to see a movie "The Bicycle Thieves" and after seeing the movie the elder boy tries to steal a bicycle and is caught by the police. And at that time – we as audience feel a sigh of relief – that at last their mission is over. But not yet! The elder son is taken by the police to a different prison from where the mother is kept. The young child the girl is left on the miserable streets alone. The girl tries to chase the police van that carries her brother – but she is too small and young to run and keep pace with the vehicle.

The movie ends up with mother crying in one prison, her elder son crying to go back outside to take care of his sister and the young sister sitting outside the mother's prison alone.

Like "The Bicycle Thieves" the movie ends in a realistic and pessimistic note – leaving a lump in our throat, as if saying to us to change the ending – to a happy ending.

I was pleased to see this movie – and that too in succession of "The Bicycle Thieves". Recommended!