M. Like Mother (2006)
IMDB
Directed by: Rasool Mollagholipoor
My Rate: 4/5
Sepideh (Golshifteh Farahani), a violin player, is a victim of Sardasaht chemical bombardment by Saddam Hussein during Iran-Iraq war, where she was a volunteer in Red Crescent. The story takes place after the war when she is pregnant from her husband, a diplomat in foreign ministry. The doctors tell them that their baby will have lung and limbs defects because of chemical effects on Sepideh. She wants too keep the baby but her husband convince/force her to do an illegal abortion but after all the baby is born...
It was the first Persian film which caught my attention since Afkhami's The River's End in 2003. Everybody was telling that you'll cry a lot during this movie, and it's true. It contains lots of dramatic scenes showing the love of a mother, which suffers from lung cancer, for her handicapped child, unable to breathe without the help of an oxygen capsule in his knapsack. It's a heaven for Farahani to show her great acting ability as a young and beautiful actress, but that's where the film fails beacuse of excessive amount of such scenes. It doesn't stop showing the handicapped boy living hardly, being a lame and simultanously carrying the capsule, but it takes the camera to the handicapped sanitarium over and over.
You can cut many of such scenes with no damage to the whole plot even make it more affecting. A couple of scenes like the first one showing the boy, buying bottles of milk for his mother and neighbours, and the bathroom scene can completely have the meaning and affect the audience, there's no need to bombard them with sympathic scenes and that overly used sad violin theme.
As a Persian film, I think it's very well made and not like the other Persian films you can see different beautiful camera angles and movements, like in the bathroom scene, or in abortion scene. The acts are also good, especially Farahani's role as mother.
It was the first Persian film which caught my attention since Afkhami's The River's End in 2003. Everybody was telling that you'll cry a lot during this movie, and it's true. It contains lots of dramatic scenes showing the love of a mother, which suffers from lung cancer, for her handicapped child, unable to breathe without the help of an oxygen capsule in his knapsack. It's a heaven for Farahani to show her great acting ability as a young and beautiful actress, but that's where the film fails beacuse of excessive amount of such scenes. It doesn't stop showing the handicapped boy living hardly, being a lame and simultanously carrying the capsule, but it takes the camera to the handicapped sanitarium over and over.
You can cut many of such scenes with no damage to the whole plot even make it more affecting. A couple of scenes like the first one showing the boy, buying bottles of milk for his mother and neighbours, and the bathroom scene can completely have the meaning and affect the audience, there's no need to bombard them with sympathic scenes and that overly used sad violin theme.
As a Persian film, I think it's very well made and not like the other Persian films you can see different beautiful camera angles and movements, like in the bathroom scene, or in abortion scene. The acts are also good, especially Farahani's role as mother.
Talking about the subject, I should say it tries to cover lots of subjects which has made it quite jammed. The chemicals used against Iran, mother's majesty in Persian culture, men's hegemony over women in Iran, fall of Saddam, abortion legality, post-war veterans having no future and hope, street girls, handicapped people pushed to the corner,... I liked it to be a minimalistic film.
1 comment:
This movie has got a good story with a well suited cast and crew.
The bath room scene is the best part of the movie I suppose.
I regret that they do not send this movie for Oscar for foreign film. It would catch the eyes of all the foreigners who know the movie industry in Iran.
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