El globo blanco

I watched this movie totally by surprise. I found out just one hour before that it was scheduled on TV.

It started slowly, maybe too slowly, or maybe too arid, for my taste, to become suddenly so cute, and not only cute, everything on the screen was real time, I was following breathlessly the adventures of the little girl, to find out, exactly at the end, that the movie was about something else.

The White Balloon - you get the meaning of the title only in the last scene, after all movie was about getting the money, loosing and then trying to recuperate them to buy a goldfish.

This movie is not only deceptive, it has multiple levels of deception.

The author of the screenplay is Abbas Kiarostami, and the way it starts looks like a movie by Kiarostami about children (along with grown-ups not understanding the little ones). Where is the Friend's Home comes to mind immediately, only this is beguiling. Here the grown-ups, as estranged from the natural of children as they can be, are eventually willing to help.

Also the little girl is not faultless either. Actually she is a pest. Anything bad that comes is due to her only. She is greedy, cunning, desperate, spoiled. That's it. While she is cute. Well, because all kids her age are the same way: greedy, cunning, selfish, desperate, spoiled; a pest, while extremely cute. That's why we love them.

Is it then a nice comedy about a cute girl who desires a goldfish? Not exactly, that's just another level of deception.

As it comes to the end, we realize the remarkable wholeness of this movie: a close space, just a couple of streets, a very short period of time, just a couple of hours, just a few personages, confined to this small space and time. Each one (not only the girl) is acting somehow frenetically, and the resulting whole is a crazy small universe, absurdly self-sufficient.

These people are acting totally unaware of each other, except when it happens to collide; in these particular situations they fight or cooperate, or do the both, then again each one is unaware of others' presence.

There is however a boy who's the exception, a stranger (an Afghan immigrant)... but you should watch the movie to get it.

I had the pleasure of watching this movie last year. I have recommended it to countless others since. There is something about this movie that stays with you and is absolutely unforgettable. I can't quite put my finger on it. The pace is slow and purposeful. The little girl and her brother are adorable. The minor characters are fantastic, including the tailor and the difficult customer. I found myself laughing out loud several times during the movie, The themes are universal. It was very easy to forget it took place in a different country in another language. It is all familiar and at the same time, revolutionary. I can watch this over and over. It may be a perfect film.

In his directorial debut, Jafar Panahi - a devoted pupil of Iranian film-god Abbas Kiarostami - is able to encapsulate the stubbornness and curiosity of a seven-year-old Tehranian girl so authentically (by use of newcomer Aida Mohammadkhani) that we forget that we are watching fiction unfold.

The White Balloon has a continuous feel that is obtained by allowing the story to unravel in real time. An unseen radio informs us that the Iranian New Year is almost upon the town; a tradition for this annual event is to either catch or buy a fish (fish represent life). Razieh, the little girl, is unsatisfied with the selection of fish in the family's pond. She complains that the family's fish are too "skinny." Eventually, Razieh's brother, Ali (Mohsen Kalifi's only role thus far), cons their mother into letting Razieh have a 500 note (Iranian money) to buy the fish that she wants. On her way to the market, Razieh loses the money two times. It is the second loss that is the most serious - the money falls into the cellar of a closed shop through a sidewalk drain. The remainder of the film is devoted to the introduction of various strangers offering either to help retrieve the note or pass the time with light-humored conversation.

Beautiful cinematography (winner of the Camera d'or at Cannes in 1994), memorable characters, and stunning direction backed by Kiarostami's expertly written script make for a great film that was reminiscent of my viewing of John Sayles' Secret of Roan Inish. Like Sayles' film, there is a magical, absorbing quality to The White Balloon that spellbinds the viewer regardless of age.

Young Razieh (Aida Mohammadkhani) needs to buy a goldfish to celebrate the New Year in Iran. Her mother (Fereshteh Sadr Orfani) gives her the money and she sets out to buy said fish. Along the way she continually loses the money and must rely on the kindness of strangers to help her.

This is a very slight film. It's plot is wafer thin in terms of traditional narrative, it may well frustrate many viewers with it's gentling strolling style. However it is quite funny on the surface. The many people who come and go during Razieh's journey are amusing - from the tailor berating a customer for having a small face causing his shirts to not look correctly tailored to the antics of the honest snake charmers. It's not a laugh out loud type of film but it does have a gentle humour throughout that is fun if you are in the mood for it.

In fact you really need to be in the mood for the whole thing - if you're lacking patience then you'll probably not last out this film but if you're willing to stick with it then you may be pleasantly surprised by the whole thing. The story doesn't grip you, but the humour helps to divert attention from this. In fact the guts of this film seems to be a message on the nature of society.

Throughout the film Razieh finds herself relying on the kindness or honesty of strangers to help her get her money. The towards the end one of the characters (a soldier played by Mohammad Shaani) talks to Razieh about his sisters and about what he has in common with her. He then defends himself when Ali (Mohsen Kalifi) attacks his sister for talking with strangers. This is closely followed by a short scene where all the characters that had interacted with Razieh cross the screen at the same time without really acknowledging each other. The message here is clear - that society is a lot closer knit than we think and it's only times of trouble where we turn to others. Instead we should develop the relationships with strangers that we easily could.

However this message is not delivered until the end of the film and it's only then that you understand what you've been watching. However the gentle comedy of the strangers make it easy to follow the film till this conclusion. Unlike other reviewers I don't think Mohammadkani was that good - she did come across as a very weepy brat and it was hard to sympathise with the problems that are all her own fault. However the other roles are good, Kalifi is the best child actor as Razieh and the other characters seem natural and forced (although Shahani's soldier is a bit preachy).

Overall a gently amusing film that is light on plot, but delivers it's simple message intelligently without forcing it down your throat.

Jafar Panahi was born in 1960. He was the assistent and pupil of Abbas Kiarostami (born 1940). His films are less philosophical but more like Neo Realism Iranian style. As a neo realist he sides with the underdog and this has brought him into conflict with the regime a number of times. In the summer of 2022 he was arrested in order to serve a 2010 sentence

"The white balloon" is situated just before Nowruz. Nowruz is the Iranian new year. It takes place around 21 March, and so it is a real welcoming of Spring and the beginning of the circle of live. It is a much bigger deal than new years day in the Western world. All families come together and in Iran that often entails a lot of travelling. So the preparation for Nowruz can be a rushed and stressful time and during this time not everybody has time for a little girl that has lost her banknote.

Panahi tells this everyday story from the point of view of the little girl.

Many of the worries of the grown ups turn out to be much more childish than the worries of the little girl.

Nowruz turns out to be a holiday to pay more attention to the members of your family, but certainly not automatically also to your fellow citizens.

In this respect the film resembles the message of "The wind will carry us" (1999) from his mentor Abbas Kiarostami. In this film a TV crew is in a small village to document traditional funeral rituals and is so focused on this aspect of life that the rest of the social interaction with the villagers is highly neglected.