Iranian film festival

The offerings at the Iranian Film Festival open a

window into Iranian society, and Iranians. It is,

however, a shame that much of the minutest details

will inevitably be lost on film-goers who will not

understand their relationship with the wider plot.

From the ritual of buying a goldfish for Nowruz or

new year, in The Fish, to the smouldering cauldron of

sholeh-zard (a dessert cooked on religious occasions

and given away in thanksgiving, or for the fulfilment

of a wish) in the opening shots of Leila, the attention

paid to symbolism and detail is unusual for all but a

minority of contemporary films. The films are thin on

plot and twists, but heavy on detail and simplicity.

Shying away from using excessive sets and plots, the

films may even pass for documentaries.

Maternal Love is about a delinquent youngster who

escapes from a reformatory to land on the doorstep of

a social worker who he tries to convince that she’s his

long lost mother. The film tackles subjects once

considered “too heavy”, like homelessness and crime

– for even the most liberal Iranian film-makers, to do

so would tarnish the reputation of, and be “disloyal”

to, a country that has received more than its fair share

of negative publicity.

The position of Iranian women will be clarified by the

fact that in all the films, particularly Sara and The Last

Act, women are less victims than they are headstrong

and organised. Leila – the best offering of the

festival – has women as both the protagonists and the

villains.

The movie revolves around the trauma of a woman,

Leila, whose discovery of her barrenness sees her,

together with her in-laws, arranging for her husband to

take a second wife. The underlying theme is how

women are architects of their own humiliation –

Leila in fact agrees to, if not encourages, the second

marriage.

The film is set in flashback mode – Leila recollects

the events which destroyed her happiness. Her

husband, Reza, is a near farcical “lamb being led to

the slaughter”. He reassures Leila that he will not

marry another woman, only to eventually give in. The

mother-in-law and her daughters are the villains, using

fainting and tears to convince Reza to marry again, to

produce a son. The pinnacle of Leila’s humilation is

when Leila cleans and decorates her marital home for

the new arrival.

The festival is on at Cinema Nouveau at the V&A

move to the Cinema Nouveau in Brooklyn, Pretoria

For a schedule of the festival, please visit the Ster Kinekor website.