Café Transit

To be honest..... I didn´t understand a single spoken word of Dialogue! But that did not stop me in the least from being fascinated by this film!

Tradition and Bureaucracies are like glaciers: They grind along at a snail´s pace, gradually burying, pulverizing and obliterating anything that stands in their path!

...Well, ALMOST anything. Some mountains are tall enough and solid enough to withstand any glacier. Border Café aka Café Transit, is a film about one such mountain. Her name is Reyhan.

Upon becoming a widow, it seems she is expected to become like a child again, sheepishly submiting to the will of her brother-in-law, become his second wife and assimilate completely, silently and obediently into his family!

Reyhan wants much more out of life! Despite an orchestrated confluence of people and factors designed to force her into submission, she never caves!

It must be admitted that CAFE does have its glacier-paced moments, but they do contribute well to the mood, tone and certain inevitable realities of events in the film. Without any spoiler details, I Really found CAFE´s final scene somewhat enigmatic and simultaneously amazing. It has been resonating around in my brain ever since! Now By the way, it was a Friend´s excellent review that prompted me to see this.

ENJOY! / DISFRUTELA!

A clash of several different cultures is the basis of Border Café. The story is one that is lived over and over again in our society - a widow continues her husband's business - but placing the same situation in Iran, makes it a totally different ball of wax.

Widow Reyhan is expected to take her two children and move in with her husband's older brother. It seems that this is the custom in this area of Iran. It is not stated, but implied that she is also expected to give her new husband sexual favors. Reyhan is an independent woman and chooses not to move. Nasser - her brother-in-law and future husband - tries every way he can to convince Reyhan to follow the custom. Nasser's wife and mother - as well as his younger brother - also implore Reyhan to honor the custom and, therefore, honor her dead husband. All of this is carried out in a most courteous fashion.

Nasser is not a villain. He is simply a good man trying to follow the customs of his family and community and provide for his dead brother's family. He remains extremely patient considering the affront to his pride by his determined sister-in-law. He is not a wild-eyed Iranian man demeaning and castigating women, but a loving man who honors the women in his life - a view we here in the United States don't often see of men of this region of the world.

Reyhan is an extremely independent woman. She loves and respects her brother-in-law and his family but makes it clear that it is not the custom where she was reared to marry her dead husband's brother and does not intend to do so. Neither will she move into her brother-in-law's house. She defies all convention and reopens the café that was owned by her husband. The café is located on the highway near the Turkish border and soon becomes a favorite of the truckers due to the delicious meals prepared by Reyhan and the friendly, family atmosphere. The truckers of all nationalities think of the café as a little home away from home.

As the café becomes more and more popular, Nasser becomes more and more frustrated with the situation. Not only is his brother's wife defying the family's time-honor custom, but the café is taking business away from his own restaurant. He decides to appeal to the authorities in order to have the café closed.

There are two interesting sub-plots in this film. One concerns a Russian girl who travels with the truckers in an attempt to get to Italy to be reunited with her sister. All the other members of the girl's have been killed, and her far-off sister is her only hope to regain the warmth of family. It appears that the girl is somewhat naïve and is being taken advantage of by the truckers. She is given a safe place to stay by Reyhan which is against the laws and customs of the area.

The other sub-plot is an unrealized love story - one between Reyhan and a Greek trucker who has been deserted by his wife. The tender romance between the two is mostly carried out through eye contact and expressions of generosity for, due to the area and circumstances, it is a forbidden love. In this sub-plot, we see the only wild-eyed Iranian in the film - Reyhan's younger brother-in-law who viciously attacks the Greek when his love for Reyhan is discovered. Of course, such macho posturing can be found throughout the world when testosterone is mixed with envy.

Border Café is the first film from Iran to be submitted for an Academy Award. One reviewer I read contends that it was approved by the Iranian government because it gives credence to tradition, and it certainly does. The tradition is viewed as archaic through Western eyes, but the people following the tradition are not depicted as extremists, but merely as everyday people trying to live their lives as best they can. It is an eye-opening film.

'Cafe Transit' (or 'Border Cafe'), directed by Kambuzia Partovi, and edited by Jafar Panahi, is a stunning film on the art of showing, not telling! The film's immediate story shows the struggles of a recently widowed mother of two small children in her efforts to live on her own and make ends meet, by taking over the family business, a highway cafe, in a rural male-dominated society. but along the way she meets others like her who share her grief and determination to renew their life; even despite the problem of language, the human spirit of love, kindness, and empathy, connects them together. The result is a film that is socially and politically daring in portraying a woman determined to not succumb to the pressures of local traditions, and also as a universal story that transcends Iran's regions and it's borders with its neighbours. Hitherto, it is a nod to this theme that the cafe in question, is set at the crossroads of civilisation, on the silk road that once weaved its way from Europe to Asia. Technically, the beautiful cinematography and editing are invisible, and it is through the light handed treatment of these elements that the brilliant acting (if we can call it acting), shines through. Fereshteh Sadre Orafaiy and Parviz Parastui are wonderful as the duelling widow and brother-in-law, as is Nikos Papadopoulos (Greece) and Svieta Mikalishina (Russia), in an international and regional cast of characters.

Cafe Transit follows in the footsteps of Big Night, Babette's Feast, Tampopo and other excellent movies made particularly memorable for their integration of food as a focal point in the story. It is also one of the best, relatively mainstream, movies to come out of Iran in the last few years.

Its central theme is the role of women in male dominated societies. Its heroine, Reyhan, has just become a widow, with two small children to take care of. Her deceased husband's brother, Nasser, offers (in the local tradition of that part of Iran) to look after her by taking her as his second wife. Reyhan, however, is an independent woman and, spurning Nasser's offer, decides instead to re-open her husband's unsuccessful truck stop café. This puts her in direct competition with Nasser, who owns a much bigger and successful truck stop restaurant. As her café gradually builds up a fervent following, the tension between her and Nasser rises; particularly when a Greek truck driver takes a liking to Reyhan.

Cafe Transit is full of interesting characters and situations. It is the feature film debut for famed Iranian screen writer Kamobozia Partovi (The Circle, Taraneh Who is 15 Years Old). Fereshteh Sadr Orfani (Partovi's real life wife) is outstanding as Reyhan (she won a best actress award from Tehran International Film Festival) and the leading Iranian actor of the current Iranian cinema, Parviz Parastoui, is, as usual, excellent as Nasser.

What really separates Cafe Transit from other worthwhile Iranian movies is the way it depicts Reyhan's skills at cooking and transfers the appreciation of her cooking to the audience without us even tasting the food! Don't miss this movie if you get a chance!

It seems hard to believe that this film is not getting the rightful release into the cinemas that it deserves. It was my second top favourite movie of 2005 ( and I saw over 100 ) and it seems it is now sitting on some shelf collecting dust. I would have loved to have owned a DVD of this movie. Agree with above comment about comparing it to Babette's Feast...another amazing film classic.

Throughout the film you are traveling with her on her journey to try to get what for us would be her rightful place in life. She just wants to take care of her family and earn a living at what she loves to do. In her society she is suppose to move in with her brother in-law and allow him to take care of her but she doesn't like him and cannot live under the same roof with him and his family.

Great film that I will remember forever....very sad.