Asghar Farhadi, the man world took notice of after his last year's top-notch 'domestic-thriller' A SEPARATION, started with (in Cricket lingo) this loosener of a delivery called 'Dancing in the storm'. A film that promises a lot in the initial few minutes, sets-up a juicy moral conflict in the next few, and then wanders off in another subplot that is as much of a geographical- location change as it is the tone shift of the film.
It all comes together beautifully in the end, in the trademark Farhadi style where stray pieces of information shared earlier in the film turn out to be vital emotional milestones that force a character's life- changing decision.
The plot is about a young, poor Irani boy who is forced to divorce his wife (whom he loves a lot) because her mother is into bad things. What bad things, the boy can't even utter in front of his wife because well, this is Iran and such things are not to be spoken of aloud. Wife insists he tells her what has he heard about her mother. Reluctantly he says that he has heard "she wears make-up and gets into other people's cars on the highway." He is being forced to divorce the girl by his own Allah-fearing parents.
(Spoilers ahead) In a brilliantly written court-room scene that will surely remind the viewer of the opening scene from A SEPARATION, they agree to separate. Husband doesn't want a divorce at the last moment, you can see. But the wife, knowing and accepting his dilemma, pushes him to say yes. And when the judge asks about the 'marriage money' (alimony), wife says she doesn't want it. (She knows how poor he is and won't be able to manage it.) But now, the husband knows wife's dilemma and the problems she will face in managing alone after divorce. Hence this time he pushes her to ask for a court stamp on 'marriage money'. Never before have I seen such a lovely, heartbreaking scene of a divorce.
After this, as the boy worries about alimony, and is finally lost in desert, stuck with a crazy old man who catches snakes for a living, the film makes a tonal shift that is baffling. The boy's cheery-cute monologues as well as the old man's stoic, brooding silence both look artificial, and after a point, jarring.
The final act redeems some of it, and the ending is definitely Farhadi- class, but the overall taste is one of 'could have been so much more'.
(Spoilers end)
Though the film is not available on torrents (may be that's why no review on IMDb or elsewhere on internet too), so wait for it at the Asghar Farhadi Restrospective at a film festival soon or whenever.
And in spite of the slightly underwhelming feeling, I'll say Farhadi had the seeds of a genius right from the beginning. Unlike any other Iranian filmmaker the world has seen. Not brooding, not feel-good, not spiritual even (the 3 qualities most easily associated with Cinema of Iran) - Farhadi is in a league of his own. A world of good people burdened with moral conflicts too genuine and grand for them to handle while retaining their goodness intact. Go Farhadi saab!
It all comes together beautifully in the end, in the trademark Farhadi style where stray pieces of information shared earlier in the film turn out to be vital emotional milestones that force a character's life- changing decision.
The plot is about a young, poor Irani boy who is forced to divorce his wife (whom he loves a lot) because her mother is into bad things. What bad things, the boy can't even utter in front of his wife because well, this is Iran and such things are not to be spoken of aloud. Wife insists he tells her what has he heard about her mother. Reluctantly he says that he has heard "she wears make-up and gets into other people's cars on the highway." He is being forced to divorce the girl by his own Allah-fearing parents.
(Spoilers ahead) In a brilliantly written court-room scene that will surely remind the viewer of the opening scene from A SEPARATION, they agree to separate. Husband doesn't want a divorce at the last moment, you can see. But the wife, knowing and accepting his dilemma, pushes him to say yes. And when the judge asks about the 'marriage money' (alimony), wife says she doesn't want it. (She knows how poor he is and won't be able to manage it.) But now, the husband knows wife's dilemma and the problems she will face in managing alone after divorce. Hence this time he pushes her to ask for a court stamp on 'marriage money'. Never before have I seen such a lovely, heartbreaking scene of a divorce.
After this, as the boy worries about alimony, and is finally lost in desert, stuck with a crazy old man who catches snakes for a living, the film makes a tonal shift that is baffling. The boy's cheery-cute monologues as well as the old man's stoic, brooding silence both look artificial, and after a point, jarring.
The final act redeems some of it, and the ending is definitely Farhadi- class, but the overall taste is one of 'could have been so much more'.
(Spoilers end)
Though the film is not available on torrents (may be that's why no review on IMDb or elsewhere on internet too), so wait for it at the Asghar Farhadi Restrospective at a film festival soon or whenever.
And in spite of the slightly underwhelming feeling, I'll say Farhadi had the seeds of a genius right from the beginning. Unlike any other Iranian filmmaker the world has seen. Not brooding, not feel-good, not spiritual even (the 3 qualities most easily associated with Cinema of Iran) - Farhadi is in a league of his own. A world of good people burdened with moral conflicts too genuine and grand for them to handle while retaining their goodness intact. Go Farhadi saab!