7 Days in Tehran (2002) User Reviews

playing with documentary and fiction as a French crew explores Iran

[ruben-heim · 6/10 · 29 November 2002]

This journey of a French film crew into Iran at the beginning of Khatami's second term of office is shot partly as documentary, partly as fiction. Director Reza Khatibi, Iranian in exile, revisits his mother country after fifteen years of absence."Les beaux lendemains de Téhéran - Sieben Tage in Teheran` reveals social aspects and mentality in episodes en miniature. Sometimes they are just hinted at. The presence of Khomeini and Khamenei on the claddings, for example. Or, generation @ complains about the calamitous chances of getting work. It is these little incidents and references that talk of cultural peculiarities and differences. A man must not shake hands with a woman; Khatibi is sitting on a chair while taking to his mother (which sits on a sofa down to the floor); the female producer is touched by a bare white wall in a simple flat without tv or radio. Iran has many faces - Khatibi shows us a slightly critical, relatively friendly one.