Frontier Blues

Frontier Blues is a portrait of an Iranian border Steppes region by the Caspian Sea that has been fought over for centuries and depicted through the eyes of four village characters, each of a differing tribe - a Persian, a Kazak, a Turkman and an Armenian. Added to which is a Tehran photographer trying to capture it all on film, taxi drivers, cafe owner, factory manager etc. All have aimless lives with no real prospects. Mundane existences in a wide barren landscape littered with relics of the past. The dark humour, stoicism and pathos is abundant and the whole cinematic experience is a true joy to watch. Frontier Blues can be equally likened to other slow paced world cinema gems such as Lake Tahoe, Vodka Lemon, The Return, Historias Minimas, The Banishment, Las Acacias and the wonderful Once Upon A Time in Anatolia. So much different from standard mainstream cinema carp of today. To me they all provide to a western outsider an education and greater understanding of these peoples and places.

I saw this film at Locarno last year. It's an interesting film and a definite departure from the standard Iranian art-house fare which is refreshing. It's beautifully shot and the melange of humour and melancholy works well. First time director Babak Jalali offers us a look into the world of his native hometown in northern Iran on the border of Turkmenistan, which we would never have seen otherwise. It's a meditative, stylistic portrait of 4 men getting on with their lives, with nowhere to go and not much to look forward to. It does not fall into the trap of clichéd looks at the Middle East and manages instead to provide a heartfelt look at the human condition. It's opening in London this week and I would definitely try and catch it as it's the sort of film you have to see on the big screen.

This is a portrait of a border province. It is not only in vast Iran that the border lands exist in a sleepy dizziness, forgotten and forlorn by government or God. I adore crossing borders on foot or by local train because of this melancholic mood that border areas around the world instil. Yet, this film shows a point of view from the locals - for whom being on the margins does not feel like a fancy adventure at all.

The people here feel stuck - and stale. There is no future to look up to, no linear time, just repetitive dailiness. However, the film undertakes to make us share into their feelings personally, and succeeds quite well! Long still scenes - almost photographs, hopeless landscape, no events (indeed, no weddings or funerals), subdued emotions and simple talk. A story is made by tiny details only.

I recently saw this film at the Edinburgh Film Festival. What a brilliant first feature!

The story follows the lives of different men living in a small town in northern Iran. The stories are simple and beautiful, about love and lose, men desperately trying to make a connection and to find meaning in their monotonous everyday existence.

I really loved the pacing of the film. It takes its time. It achieves humor and pathos without trying. It is the kind of film that only comes around once in a while, the kind of film that is getting harder and harder to make or released.

I recommend this gem to anyone who loves the cinema of Kaurismäki or Kiarostami. Babak Jalali is certainly a great new director to watch!

There is a debate raging in various august film organs at the moment about the merits/demerits of "slow cinema". Whatever your standpoint on the matter is, you should know that this is an example of the cycle. For myself, I watch Bergman and often hope that he will hold shots longer! Blues is the right word for what we've got here, but the men of the cast (the characters are almost entirely men) aren't utterly high and dry, and there's a goodly amount of drollery to be had. It's very important to recognise that each of the characters the films follows has someone that loves them (even if it's not the love they think they want), despite their reservoirs of ennui.

There is prettiness to be had on the northern frontiers of Iran, the quality of light on the steppes, the Caspian sea. But these characters aren't there on holiday, and they are pretty much stuck in the Doldrums. In particular I think you keenly feel the lack of female presence in the movie, all the women seem to have had the sense to absent themselves from the congenital exile. Hassan is the funniest character, he has pebble glasses and a slack jaw, his hobby is collecting car number plates from different regions in Iran, and he claims to own several eucalyptus plantations. He pines for the mother he has only ever known from a photo, a beautiful lady who ran away to Paris when he was young. His sentimental connection with her is a tape of Françoise Hardy's "Tous les garçons et les filles"; which reminded me of my schooldays, when my French teacher for a year, a real Titania who kept us all behaving through the spell of her fey grace alone, used to play us her songs under some doubtlessly invented educational pretext.

The stories aren't intersecting, and what we see is more a slice of life than traditional narrative. The director is careful to be as honest in his depictions as possible, and warns of the falsity of the Neorealist approach via a story of an ethnographic photographer from Tehran.

A funny and deeply humanistic movie, as an oblique coda, I suggest that you bring a long a sachet of dried apricots to make an experience of it if this plays near you.