Yek Etefagh sadeh (1973) User Reviews

Very interesting

[mikko_viljanen · 10/10 · 16 February 2016]

This film has been named as one of the seminal films of the "Iranian new wave". I saw it in a Finnish cinematheque as part of an Iranian theme series. It was surprisingly fresh and strong even after more than 40 years.

The director's style resembles very much Bresson. He is not interested in psychological realism, but rather shows gestures which are both ritual and mundane. The lack of emotions between the characters in striking, but never overstated, and towards the end the film seems to become a cinematic essay on the impossibility of human relationships.

Every frame in this film in carefully planned. The small village, Caspian shores, barroom interiors - all this is as important as the inner life of the characters. It's clear that the role of the scenery has influenced Kiarostami a lot. The film leaves an intense afterglow, perplexing with it's matter- of-fact view upon life and death.

It is the story of routine life of a ten years old Iranian schoolboy living with his mother in Northern coasts of Iran.

[arerfanian · 5/10 · 7 January 2008]

Yek Eteffagh e Sadé looks like an Italian new-realistic film, something of the kind of Bicycle Thieves by Vittorio De Sica. It is even a raw realistic film rather than realistic. The camera is still and the takes are very long. There is no close-ups and the most of the film is made by long shots and very long shots. The action is very long (e.g. the real duration of schoolboy's taking his food)and repeated many times (the boy takes in his bags fishes from his father's bag every day, every night he brings water to his mother). Shahid-Sales used to show the boring routine life of ordinary people with these devices. In 1974, year after Yek Eteffagh e Sadé he won Berlin's Silver Beer for his Still Life, again a story of routine...