Ghasideh Gave Sefid
Plots(1)
Mina’s life is turned upside down when she learns that her husband Babak was innocent of the crime for which he was executed. The authorities apologise for the mistake and offer the prospect of financial compensation. Mina starts a silent battle against a cynical system for her own and her daughter’s sake. Just as her money is running out, a stranger named Reza knocks at her door, saying he has come to repay a debt he owed to Babak. Mina is guarded at first, but increasingly lets Reza into her life, unaware of the secret that ties them to one another. Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghaddam masterfully present guilt and atonement, a classic trope of Iranian film, as a cinema of small, precise gestures and spaces. Maryam Moghaddam excels in the role of a Mina caught between loneliness and her struggle for self-determination. (Berlinale)
(more)Reviews (2)
Typically heavy-handed subject matter for Iran, which also seems very much aimed at the European market this time. On the one hand, the somewhat forced litanies of the same cultural differences incomprehensible to Europeans over and over, such as those with dogs, forbidden male visitors, lawsuits against women for living improper lives; on the other hand, it has an often perfectly composed setting and an attempt to tastefully combine in one static shot ideally all the elements that need the given scene needs to communicate. And Maryam Moghadam does a really fantastic job of playing the life-torn single mother slowly getting back on her feet.
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