'twas refreshing...'twas a break worthwhile...

bored with the hollywood spectacle and bollywood commercials,i decided to check out some persian neo-realist movies for a change..the very talented majid majidi though is the torchbearer in this field yet film-makers like jafar panahi,samaira makhmalbaf,abbas kiarostami,mohsen makhmalbaf all are just like the diamonds twinkling in the sky of the iranian film fraternity..

Jafar panahi is one such director whom i admire much because of his stories which are simple tell tales that touch the innermost chords of our hearts.One speciality of panahi is that none of his films speak of any character man or woman, who is essentialy evil..instead all of them are endearing and on occasions if they are intially seen to be devious the inference is quickly inverted by the director in the next shot.Maker of such classics like THE CIRCLE,THE MIRROR and OFFSIDE,panahi deals mainly with the discourse of women liberation and their plight in the radical islamic nation.

THE WHITE BALLOON one of his earlier movies dealing with the simple story of a small girl razieh in her mission of buying a gold fish with the persian new year as its time frame deals with similar issues at the sub-textual level.The story is written in collaboration with abbas kiarostami

and opens with a three minute camera capture of the tehran market place,with the shops having their last transaction before they shut down for celebrating the new year which comes at the spring equinox.This few first minutes of the film is significant from the angle that it presents before the audience the central focal point of the movie,the marketplace where razieh shall go with 500 tomas to buy a goldfish that resembles a 'bride',stout and beautiful.The camera focusses on every single character that will form an integral part of razieh's mission..The man whom she happens to see at the tailor's shop,the street performers,the lady who shall come to her assistance,the soldier with whom she'l have a brief chit-chat(the best part of the movie perhaps) and the young afghan balloon seller who shall come to her rescue finally.

From the onset,the film focuses on iranian poverty,as we find razieh's mother finding it difficult to meet the ends before the new year.Razieh's nagging for a gold fish is refused by her initially,only later on when razieh's brother steps on the scene he somehow manages to exact 500 tomas from her,of which razieh can spend only a hundred on the gold fish.

Razieh's journey then begins.The first thing that fascinates her eyes is the two street performers charming the people huddled there with snake games.Here panahi brings in the next issue.The issue of women's freedom.Infact later we come to know from razieh herself while she speaks to the old lady after loosing her 500 tomas,and in a desperation of finding it that many times she had wanted to view this performances but her father had not allowed her.The old lady's chide that girls are not meant to come there,'ts not a place for girls drives home most strongly that e'en infants like razieh who are yet to understand their outside world are prey to this kind of orthodoxies..this scene can also be interpreted in a psychoanalytical level..razieh happens to visit the performers who then happen to frighten her with the snake..first they exact her 500 tomas on the pretext that 'ts what that the snake wants and then asks her to take it herself from the snake's body around which it is wound.Razieh's frightening eyes,her cowing down with no help from the fellow watchers might hint at the sexual threat that the infants are often exposed to at the hands of the adults..an echo of this is again seen in the conversation scene with the soldier,when on seeing the approaching soldier the liitle baby razieh stretches the ends of her skirt continueously in an attempt to protect her from voilation.This is something which from her very birth she has learnt.infact panahi shows it as an action driven by the stimuli..

As panahi would say all his characters in the movies are angels eventually..well,thats true because all this characters though initially seem to be devious are found eventually to be helping the little cherub or forming a bond of friendship with her..Thus panahi shows how appearences are often deceptive of reality...

The most important directorial strategy that fascinates the viewers is obviously stored for the final scene..Razieh after loosing her money has various experiences as she desperately moves about the market place to find it..a very significant scene is where the old man selling the gold fishes promises to give her the gold fish then and take the money later,though razieh refuses the offer..He is another of panahi's angels in a world which is conceived by many outsiders as demonic to a girl child..razieh eventually finds a friend in the soldier who's story is perhaps the most touching..He is one of those characters who happens to bump in just from nowhere to become a significant part..He is infact the signifier through whom the priveleged signified of the text expresses herself. her latent fears hinting at the state of the nation and finally forming a bond of love and sharing,perhaps the first one in her life and that too with a lovely warm stranger from the millitary who happens to see the image of his own sister in her..AIDA MOHAMMADKHAMI infact gives the best performance in this scene with her excellent intial retorts at the soldier's question..The soldier is perhaps panahi's best angel coming across with the maximum warmth of attitude..

The final scene of the movie with the afghan balloon boy helping her to get her money back is very significant as panahi here uses the theme of circularity..razieh's journey has come to an end perhaps,so is the year as we hear the wishes for the new year that has just begun..a new journey shall start with the new year,the journey of the afghan balloon boy from his first meeting razieh's mother at the market place where he directs her to journey both the right and the left to whereever he goes through with his white balloon as his constant companion......