The Traveller from the South
[Screened at the Cinequest Film Festival 9, San Jose]
[3.5/4.0] (dialog in Farsi, English subtitles)
Reza Amri is a 14 year old boy making a trip from his home in southern Iran to Tehran to stay with his cousin and have a vacation. On the same train, in the next compartment to Reza's, is the elderly Mrs. Nasiri, who is travelling to Tehran to catch a flight to Germany so she can visit her son whom she has not seen for many years. Reza is initially put off by the cranky old woman, but during a brief train stop, he has a conversation with her and sympathizes with her plight. He has no set schedule, so he figures he could make himself useful and help her to the airport, because she seems to be in poor health and generally appears uncomfortable getting around by herself.
What initially appears to be a gesture of goodwill leads to a larger adventure. When Mrs. Nasiri collapses at the airport we learn that she has a serious heart condition. Reza is able to get her taken to the hospital but finds that since she has no insurance, she will have to pay cash for the necessary treatment. With the old woman now incapacitated, Reza takes it upon himself to become her temporary guardian. He must manage her possessions and try to exchange her Deutsch Marks and pawn her jewelry to raise the money she needs for her medical care.
With this simple story, director Parviz Shahbazi has created a moving and convincing picture of life in modern day Iran. Westerners have a very limited exposure to Persian culture, and Americans especially have kept a stilted view of it since the Islamic Revolution and accompanying American hostage incident. It is refreshing to see a perspective from inside that nation that gives an insight to many of the mundane aspect of daily life. Like in many other developing countries, it is necessary to have street smarts and a good knowledge of how the system operates in order to get anything accomplished. Reza is an extremely resourceful person and genuinely enjoys the challenge of haggling fares with taxi drivers and negotiating a place to spend the night with a hospital night watchman. Still, despite the amount of ruggedness required of individuals, there are many small acts of generosity and hospitality on the part of strangers that is often absent in other cultures.
An unbelievably strong performance is given by the young actor Reza Moghadam as Reza. A tremendous challenge presented by the role is the sparseness of dialog. Much of the story consists of Reza navigating the city and most of the time Moghadam must use solely his physical expressiveness to sculpt the character. He aptly defines the character of the quiet but plucky boy who shows maturity beyond his years by taking on responsibility that is in no way required of him. From his ability to negotiate resourcefully with store clerks and hospital administrators, to his fierce pride in his cultural background, we see a character of tremendous depth that is a result of both superb writing and acting.
Because most of the action is filmed on location, there is the feeling that what is being watched is not a narrative film but rather a voyeuristic documentary. Just as one would expect if one were following a person around, we see Reza simply gazing out the window of a bus, small children running around playing or picking their nose. Given its basis, the story could have easily become a melodramatic tragedy, or an uplifting morality tale. Thankfully it avoids both of these and simply tells the story of charming boy, and a charming country.
Highly recommended, a must-see for anyone interested viewing daily life in another culture. It is a simple but poignant story, and a brilliant performance by a young actor. It is a very compelling portrait of life in Iran. Deservedly, this film won the Maverick competition at Cinequest.
(c) 1999 Murali Krishnan The Art House Squatter http://pages.hotbot.com/movies/murali24/
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