The newspaper reviewers and the commentators above missed the point, I think. Over and over again, the film develops the contrast between things being motionless and stuck and being energetically in motion. We have the photographer (and photographs render things motionless) in his stuck car. We have the childless wife. This forlorn village. The train that moves and the abandoned and broken train. The teacher is constantly in motion, pushing the photographer on when he wants to wait for a cloud and the perfect picture. And the children are always running here and there, shouting and carrying on. The wife begins to move (despite the clothes that Islam requires and that hamper her movement) when she moves the class to the fields. The ending, with the couple trying to get away in their car and the wife stopping them and the children running after them sums up the situation. Neither this woman whose babies are stillborn nor her rich husband are good at moving the way the teacher and the children are. One can read the film in terms of rich and citified vs. poor and countrified, and that is certainly part of it. But only part.
5 Reviews
Symbolism is well and good, but first the story has to work
WriConsult25 February 2003
The story has to work on its surface first, and this barely does. The editing back and forth between the husband and the wife is not well timed and not tied together. The characters look like they should be very interesting, but somehow they aren't so much. The connections between people that show up aren't particulary gripping or engaging, and the scene at the end simply doesn't work, physically or emotionally. Also, this being filmed in the desert with rather light-colored scenery, it can be extremely hard to read the white subtitles at times.
Good points are stunning desert scenery (although it looks a lot less remote and deserted than plenty of places right here in Oregon), decent acting, and good metaphors about Iranian life.
Good points are stunning desert scenery (although it looks a lot less remote and deserted than plenty of places right here in Oregon), decent acting, and good metaphors about Iranian life.
Another symbolic Iranian film
shaid4 February 2003
Warning: Spoilers
The film is about a couple who get stuck in the middle of the desert and get help from the village's teacher who is also the local mechanic. While the mechanic & the husband go to get a mechanical piece to repair the car, the wife, a teacher herself, remains in the village to replace the teacher. As usual with Iranian films these days the film is very symbolic and as usual the small scale story is used to say something about the Iranian society. There is nothing bad about films which use metaphors, but the story has to strong enough for us to understand the metaphors without the help of the director. In this film the story is too weak to hold on itself and the metaphors are represented in such a way that make the film less appealing than it should have been.
boring and amateurish
filmalamosa29 December 2011
This film is a dog. It looks like it was filmed in an afternoon.
There is nothing to it no care was given to anything...it is supposed to be a deserted spot yet careless camera angles later in the film show it is near populated areas.
A photographer and his wife get off the main road and their car breaks down. The only one who can repair it is a local school teacher...the wife is also school teacher too so she takes over his class while he repairs the car.
Her day at the school so impressed the kids that they keep following her at the end of the film as she and her husband (car repaired) try to drive off.
Oh yes the woman has not had any children...while she is teaching that afternoon a ewe has a still born lamb under the school (we are talking basics...mud buildings no windows or doors..). But wait!....she has children in the form of the students who adore her and won't let her leave after 5 hours.
Dull boring stupid .... the perfect film to wow idiots.
There is nothing to it no care was given to anything...it is supposed to be a deserted spot yet careless camera angles later in the film show it is near populated areas.
A photographer and his wife get off the main road and their car breaks down. The only one who can repair it is a local school teacher...the wife is also school teacher too so she takes over his class while he repairs the car.
Her day at the school so impressed the kids that they keep following her at the end of the film as she and her husband (car repaired) try to drive off.
Oh yes the woman has not had any children...while she is teaching that afternoon a ewe has a still born lamb under the school (we are talking basics...mud buildings no windows or doors..). But wait!....she has children in the form of the students who adore her and won't let her leave after 5 hours.
Dull boring stupid .... the perfect film to wow idiots.
terribly weak
acleanplayer11 March 2006
Awful...extremely weak acting, discontinuous, boring story...i can't believe Kiarostami initiated the idea! The worst scenario ever...I think it is not actor's fault why dialogs are so rigid and senseless... do not waste your money by renting it...there are lots and lots of great Iranian movies you can watch...i am really sorry this one could pass several better ones and get into the international market...:-( The director takes advantage of Kiarostami's name and Leila Hatami's presence in the movie...and honestly, Leila Hatami does not even act so well...the idea of the movie could have been developed in a much better and more mature fashion...maybe if Kiarostami himself had decided to work on it, it would turn out a prize-winning movie. but this one is not really worth a dime...:-(
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