I've seen Ayneh (The Mirror) and The White Balloon.
I kind of wish I'd read more about The White Balloon before going into the theater -- apparently, there's a level of allegory going on with the story that I wasn't getting (until I came out of the theater and noticed the flyers by the door). I'm also glad I got to read up on The Mirror beforehand -- just the press kit stuff (maybe five pages of text) was enough to make it a thoroughly enjoyable film.
I can't remember everything that was in these films (this was around 10 years ago), but I do remember that there's a lot of very oblique social & political commentary going on in them. They can't be too direct because, well, the filmmakers live in a country where the ayatollahs are in charge.
One example, from The Mirror, is a repeated gag that the taxi drivers don't know where the filmmakers are going (it's a fiction that becomes a documentary when the child actress decides she really does need to go home). People keep getting lost in the city. This is a reflection (or so I read) of the fact that in the 1980s, all the street names were changed to reflect the new Islamic leadership. Nobody says that in the film, but it was in the press material.
Like French New Wave or Italian Neo-realism, they're very much low-budget, documentary-style films. But they kind of play with that in an intellectual way, and the characters were vivid. Like, it's weird, I can barely remember the story of The White Balloon, but I still feel sorry for that whiny little girl.
I do remember part of the social commentary in that film involves a slightly older boy she encounters -- he's of a different ethnicity than she is, if I'm remembering correctly, and has a much harder life. He's not in school, for one thing. An Iranian viewer would probably get that right away, but as an outsider, I had no way to know what was going on until I'd read the little flyer afterwards.
So do a little homework before watching -- read some reviews or something. |
