The Baby

In Iran, a female student tries to find someone to look after her baby before her parents (who don't know about their unmarried daughter's baby) come to visit.

There is a worthy air to this film. It is Iranian (not a voice I hear a lot from in short films), it is based around the plight of a woman with a baby out of marriage, and it has a good authentic feel to it. However mostly it is this worthy feel that I took away from it – that it was a film that I appreciated or felt I should like, more than I actually liked. The film at first drops in small bits of information which hint at a background, but don't let it clutter the moment; I liked this as it left more space for the characters to fill. After a while though there is not enough character specifics to fill the film, and it ends up being the same as it was but in different ways. I didn't feel the characters were specific enough, or real enough, to provide a lot – make me feel for them, experience what they felt, and understand a lot about what I'm not seeing from small things they do.

I wanted the writing and performance to continue dropping small things to fill me in – but not just in the dialogue about practicals, but rather about the characters. Narghes does have moments where we see her worry, and the pain all this costs her – but they are too direct, and I didn't get this knitted into her fabric in the way it would perhaps be. I appreciated the filmmaking – the use of locations, the choice of shots, and lack of dramatic flamboyance, but it didn't hit my heart or draw me in. Interesting enough to watch as a detached observer, but this is all I was.

Each line is precise. The characters are build detail by detail. The story is clear , the performances good, the atmosphere inspired suggested. But it seems soulless. A case, delicate, dramatic. And you look for the source of emotion. But the film seems more a telegram. A mother. Her baby daughter. The friend of woman. The solution for keep, for short time, at the first sigh, the baby . And the last scene, almost so predictable. Short - a cold film.