Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My first and favourite Iranian film!, 24 Oct 2007
I'd never watched an Iranian film before this one so I had no idea what to expect. This was so good, I've watched several more since!
Its essentially allegorical - Iranian film-makers are subjected to legal and psychological restrictions as to how they put a mirror up to their society and many have chosen this style as a consequence.
Three stories mark the tratment of women of different ages in modern Iran. In the first an 8 year old girl begs for more time to play as a child before she is forced by elder relatives to wear the veil and become an adult. In the second, a young women competing in a bicycle race attempts to carry on despite being attacked by various male relatives and authority figures. In the last, an elderly women recently enriched by the death of her wealthy husband goes shopping for all the things she desires. Pointedly she becomes aware she has forgotten one thing (perhaps, the film-maker is suggesting, her freedom?)
Despite being a highly stylised piece of work, this film contains a level of simple beauty - an innocence if you like - which is virtually unknown in western cinema. It also makes a wonderful introduction to the magic that is Iranian film. Watch this (and Samira Makhmalbaf's exquisite 'At Five in the Afternoon') to experience some of that magic for yourself!
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A very overrated film, 30 Aug 2008
Much has been made of Iranian cinema over the last few years not least because Samira Makhmalbaf became the darling of the Guardian newspapers arts pages though just because it's given good press does not mean that it is any good.
Take this film for example, 3 short stories one good, the other average the third not just poor but asking more questions from the director than it seems the director cares to answer.
In the first a young girl reaches 'adulthood' (in the eyes of the rural area of Iran that she comes from) and is required to wear the full veil as her adult female relatives are required to to (it would seem) more by tradition than anything else. The young girl however, manages to wrangle a few more hours of childhood and goes to play with her friend, a young boy who (for some reason that's not quite clear from the film) is locked away in school (looks more like a prison) They share sweets together and generally act like children until the time arrives and she is taken off to don the veil.
The second story is of a cycle race where (it seems) only women participate (again it's never made clear why this race is taking place) One young woman it seems is married and her husband and family are not too keen on the idea of her participating in a cycle race. They endlessly turn up on the journey (on horseback) to demand she returns to her husband. During the race the entire family seem to have a go at bringing her back including the village Imam (an elderly chap who seems to like riding a horse bare chested!) They all fail to convince her and finally the scene ends with her bundled off the race in the distance by it would seem her family.
Now I understand that the race may be symbolic but come on, is that not a little patronising to both Iran and Iranian women? Cycling along to freedom only to be bundled off the road by bare chested, horse riding Mullahs!
The third story is even more bizarre. It begins with an elderly woman arriving at a coastal town by plane to be met by numerous street children asking her if they want her to carry her luggage (interesting in that most of the street children in Iran seem to be black, a point that the director fails to either challenge or even recognise) She has never had various material possessions and now, having come into money decides to buy them and set them up on a beach.
So what does she do? She dispatches these little black children off to bring fridges, sofas and God knows what else for her to sit about and make up for lost time. Again I am sure many of us in the west will be too busy wringing our hands about the plight of this poor woman who has been denied so much in life will totally ignore these virtual child slaves who are running around to her beck and call. No challenge is made to this, no comment, no mention of the fact that most of them are black (apart from a few dubious comments from the old lady herself) No, all that is ignored.
If you wish to watch an interesting observation of women in Iran then watch the Circle, a film that both asks questions and challenges. If you want a film for a spot of hand wringing about those terrible people over there then this is the film for you.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Women in Iran: Three Experiences, 30 Jun 2008
The opening sequences of this film are striking.There is no sound but a surreal image of black veiled women cycling fast along a long straight track by the sea. Riding alongside them is a horseman. It is a race, but we are not informed of this until later in the film, so we are left wondering what the meaning can be.
The film is made up of three vignettes, each focusing on a different age of woman and carefully crafted so the final sequence alludes to the earlier scenes. The photography indicates heat, intensity and oppression.
It begins with the innocence of a young girl whose friendship with a boy of her own age is curtailed because at noon she is told she becomes a woman. There is an existential preoccupation with time, which is marked by the little girl's focus on the sun's passage through the sky which casts a shadow on the sand. When there is no shadow, it is noon, and her mother arrives with a black veil.Veiled and watchful, she observes the playful freedom of the boys as they launch a raft onto the sea.
The second tale, begins with the the women's cycle race.The cycles represent freedom and their speed symbolic of their wish to escape the oppression of their lives.The race is a challenge to a patriarchal order and so the horseman who rides alongside and picking out one woman in particular, berates her with increasing aggression that she is dishonouring her husband and her marriage. She continues. He brings an Imam, her father, her grandfather, her brothers, and all are on horseback.She continues.
The final sequence could almost have been a scene from Bunuel, such is its surrealism.An elderly woman arrives at an airport and announces she has been left money, and proceeds to engage a retinue of small boys whose purpose is to carry and push her purchases; a large fridge, an oven, a double bed, kitchen equipment, a bridal outfit, and a glass teapot which she finds offensive on account of its 'nakedness'. All these items are set up on the beach. The scene ends with cameo parts from representatives of the women's cycle race, and the boys and the old woman set sail watched by the little girl from the first scene.
The movie is slow paced and subtle. The director, a woman with a particular take on the world.The film is a gentle representation of her thinking. The final scene is, a veiled [sic] critique of the consumerism of the West, and the conflict that women in particular are faced with, but all three vignettes stand alone as crystallizing the complexities or womens' lives in Iran.
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