Jafar Panahi's Offside is a documentary-ish feature film centered around the events that take place in Tehran on the day Iran defeats Bahrain in a World Cup qualifier. Panahi's own idea for this film was born after his daughter was refused to enter a stadium to watch a soccer match. In Iran, women are not permitted to watch men's sports events. Like most of the Iranian films I've watched including Mr.Panahi's , the film is very simplistic, almost minimal without any embellishments, that's why I felt it was like a documentary.

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Taste of Cherry

Taste of Cherry belongs to an earlier era of masterpieces, when life flowed slower. That it was released in 1998 and was hailed as one cinematic work of genius makes me want to question my cinematic senses, which might not be as evolved as I have led myself to believe. The long takes and the slow moving story reminded me of international films of the sixties, seventies and eighties which won standing ovations at exotic film festivals like Cannes and Locarno.

Maybe it is my years of living in the US of A, my interpretation of the film is very different from what it could have been had I never left India. First few minutes of the movie, I had a bad feeling about the lead actor’s intention (ofcourse looking thru’ American tinted glasses one may say). The rest of the movie was too slow moving to sustain my interest. Review: Way over my head to get the gist. Sorry Mr.Kiarostami. My bad.

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Blackboards

Coming from a 20 year old director is a good movie, if you can forget that her father is the famous Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Samira Makhmalbaf tells the story of a couple of teachers who carry blackboards on their backs and virtually 'hunt down' students (because no one want to learn to read or write)in the craggy and treacherous Kurdish mountainsides in the Iran-Iraq border.

This seemed more like a documentary with shreds of a story than a feature film. It is worth a watch if you are student of cultures and if you like to know how people in other parts of the world live. It gets boring sometimes because the material is stretched too far and it wears thin. I'd view it for educational purposes rather than for entertainment.

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Turtles Can Fly

My second Ghobadi film, the first one was Marooned in Iraq. I loved this one a lot better than the first maybe because it is easier to sympathize with the plight of young children.

The story takes place in Iraqi Kurdistan, the three main characters in the story are all orphans, finding their way in the world of refugee camps and land mines. The main character, Satellite, is a young teenager with a penchant for technical stuff that he's the one who is responsible for installing satellite dishes, delivering and translating international news as well as being the self-made contractor for a band of orphan children who clears landmines. The other two main characters are a refugee girl whom Satellite develops a crush on and her invalid elder brother who can see the future.

In a constantly volatile war zone without the umbrella of security that could have been provided by their parents, had they been alive, these children live life one day a time. The only aim they have infront of them is surviving one more day - whether they are four or fourteen years old. A brutally honest film yet simplistic and heartrending. Hats off to Bahman Ghobadi.

p.s- Iraqi movie but tagged under Iranian films,

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Badkonake Safed (The White Balloon)

This is an Iranian film by Jafar Panahi, which reminded me of Majid Majidi's 'Children of Heaven', so much so that at one point I double checked on the cover whether director's name was indeed Jafar Panahi. This movie revolves around a small incident in the life of a little girl and her brother living in Tehran and the timespan of the whole movie is 2-3 hours before the Iranian New Year compressed into an eighty-five minute film.

The little girl is bent upon having a new goldfish for the New Year inspite of having a whole tank full of them in her courtyard, she reasons that the one she has in mind is fatter and prettier with a whole lot more fins. Her mother gives into her pleadings after a while and gives her the money, to buy the goldfish. The rest of the movie is how the girl loses the money and her encounters with the adult world and the world in general in her attempts to retreive the money. A good movie scattered with nuances of life in Tehran, the children's ingenuity in retreiving the money, the naturality of various characters in the movie, makes it worth a watch. The one thing I didn't understand was the title of the movie - 'the white balloon', the only time the white balloon features in the movie, is tied to the end of the stick which the children use to retrieve the money. I don't think it had higher importance than the stick, which was 'the' instrument, neither did the children seemed to be aware of its existence at the end of the stick. Maybe some metaphorical edge that I failed to recognize, eh?!?!!

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Majid Majidi Movies

I don't know what's the state of main stream Iranian cinema, but what I know is Iranian director Majid Majidi's films are good, reminds me of Malayalam movies when they used to be good and were not trying to blindly ape Bollywood. Majidi is one of the younger crop of Iranian film directors, I guess, I haven't seen the films of his more famous predecessors. But I have seen two of Mr.Majidi's movies, 'Children of Heaven' and 'Baran'.

Children of Heaven is an unforgettable experience, its about two kids, brother and sister, and a lost pair of sneakers. The world of childhood, where we all had some secrets, kept well hidden from the eyes of adults has been successfuly portrayed in a heart rendering way. How kids set to undertake unachievabletasks, all by themselves,with only their sweet innocence and their bottomless faith in each other as their only aids, is remarkable. The camera work and direction is excellent. Its a must watch.

Baran, the second movie I saw was about two young people who fall in love, they must be teenagers. I wonder whether these two are part of any trilogy or something of Mr.Majidi's, because one has a story set in childhood, other has a story set in teenage, and maybe there are others that I haven't seen. Baran is also poignant and simple like the other movie, his way of story telling will keep people interested in one small incident in life, without a feeling of boredom. If you get a chance to watch any of his movies, don't waste it, thats all I can say.

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