So Close, So Far

"Kheili dour, kheili nazdik" or "So Far, So Close" in its international name is created by the young Iranian director Reza Mir-Karimi. It's all about a man's believes. "Dr. Alam" plausibly acted by "Masoud Rayegan" is a skilled brain surgeon that have recently come back to Iran. He doesn't believe in God. "We, ourselves make god, till we beg his generosity when we need him.' He says. Near "Nowrouz" (Iranian New Year Eve) They report him that his only young son has a tumor in his head and he is dying soon. "Saman", his boy is a student of astronomy and accompanying his friends have gone to a bis desert to observe the stars. Dr. Alam departs to the desert finding his son. On the way he runs out of fuel and can't go on anymore. Sand storm covers his high-class Mercedes Benz and now he is going to die. But there is a slight light in his mind. The light of God. God will save everybody needs him seriously.

This admirable film changes your ideas about God. It penetrates into your mind and never get out of it. This film is selected as Iran's submission in the Best Foreign Film category for the 2005 Oscars. I recommend it to everybody wants seeing God's role in his life.

Despite the modern and well pictured scenes and camera usage, and the accurate screenplay, the film fails to send the religious message that is merely trying to bombard the audience and the lead actor with, throughout its entire duration, as it repeatedly puts elements to prove that science and the man of science is so weak, alienated, and pathetic without believing in God. And only then, when he is so punished by his doubt, and superpowers, it is time to finally be saved by the cruel God's representatives, who are people who care about some spiritual or religious matters, which are not characterized, and are described just by big ideas. So the real message is not about salvation, but that man is doomed to either be a pathetic non-believer who is constantly being punished, or an imaginary non-characterized spiritual figure.

I am not an expert in either Mirkarimi's work nor the current intellectual atmosphere in Iran. I saw "So Close, So Far" (or as it is referred to on other sites, "Too Far Away, Too Close") at the 28th Mill Valley Film Festival; the film is magnificently photographed amidst the secular western influences (high-rise architecture, interminable freeway traffic, cell phones, food-network television shows) of the Tehran bourgeois and in the pure, poor, religious, traditional culture of the Iranian desert. "So Close, So Far" is a deeply philosophical, humanist film that will be submitted as Iran's entry for the 2006 Academy Awards for Foreign Film.

The film is fascinating in its depiction of the split between trust that the protagonist, a westernized Tehrani neurologist (played by Masoud Raygan) places in science as the explanation of all human phenomena versus the faith that the film's other main character (an under-trained and under-funded female country doctor, portrayed angelically by Elham Hamidi) puts in the "too mighty" god of Islam.

The outstanding screenplay takes on the character of a great novel, with every scene and bit of dialogue foreshadowing later events; nothing is wasted in the film, which runs over two hours. It is a road movie in which the quest takes on personal, political, religious and philosophical meaning. The only negative comment I would have is that the large portrayal of the doctor's central agony is almost too overpowering for American audiences.

One thing I found interesting was the subtitler's use of the term "astrology" for astronomy (the doctor's son is an astronomer who is out in the desert as part of a national astronomic competition). Iran's dichotomy of the modern, western and secular versus the traditional, eastern and religious is perfectly reflected in the dichotomy between modern astronomy and ancient astrology. Astronomy/astrology gives the film its title (galaxies that are far away from us, yet much closer than the other stars in the universe), and the film relates the pictures of nebulas to the fantastic shapes of the desert landscapes. The doctor has to confront issues of birth and death in his practice, the son contemplates the birth and death of stars.

I think this movie is not about believing in god or not.all this movie want to say is that human naturally needs to believe in god.about director I just have to say he did his job perfect.and two main characters (the doctor and the nurse) were also great.everything about this movie was great accept two scenes that their levels were not as perfect as other scenes.one was the scene that doctor's little childed hugged him.it was so Kellsie.and the other was at last I think we did't need any shining about necklace in the car for a miracle.I think it was so childed.but after all what I want to say for most of the people is that please watch it.It might change your life forever.and this movie is one of the best movies of Iranian cinema.

The only problem with movie is that some places that Dr. Alam passed through to get to Mesr village are wrong, or with wrong order. In other words, hundred miles from Mesr, especially when you come from Tehran, there's nobody with accent like the local people who were in the movie, and of course the traditional clothes and the music that they played in the wedding belonged to Khorasan, not Mesr, or Biabanak, or Isfahan or Semnan!