Directed by Majid Majidi, who would later helm the better known Children of Heaven, this Iranian film is set in a working class milieu, and it tells the story of a teenage boy, who after his father is killed in a traffic accident, has to leave school and start working in order to support his family. He is proud of being, at such a young age, the person bringing the bread to his poor family. But things change when his widowed mother marries a police officer. He regards this as a double betrayal, and he tries to make life for his family impossible. After putting his two young sisters in jeopardy (in a domestic oven, in one of the film's best scenes), he flees to a port city. The policeman follows him, and in the road back they found themselves in the desert, in a final chase scene that is among the best thing I ever saw. Eventually, and in extremis, adoptive father and son reconciles. Perhaps the best thing of the movie is the portrayal of the policeman. His manners are a bit rough and unpolished, but in his heart he is a good man; it would have been much easier for the film to portray him as a monster, but happily this was avoided. Another triumph for the humanistic Iranian cinema that surprised the movie-watching world in the 1990s (and which sadly, right now, seems to be going through a bad time, hurt by renewed censorship in the Islamic republic).
10 Reviews
Early promise from Majidi
trivium10510 July 2013
I am a fan of Majid Majidi and have been watching his work in reverse chronological order. Much like other Iranian directors, his early work shows great promise and is very enjoyable, but is clearly not up to the standard of his later work.
Pedar is a good enough film, enjoyable story, fine acting, the usual nice settings and camera work from Majidi. However, where it falls below his later work in standard is (just like The Color of Paradise)the lack of subtlety and nuances in this film ; it is overly-emotional and arguably melodramatic in places. People show their emotions by shouting and screaming in this film, which is a slightly coarse way of portraying their feelings. Majidi's later works, such as the great Willow Tree, offer a greater depth.
A good film, which was followed by better ones.
Pedar is a good enough film, enjoyable story, fine acting, the usual nice settings and camera work from Majidi. However, where it falls below his later work in standard is (just like The Color of Paradise)the lack of subtlety and nuances in this film ; it is overly-emotional and arguably melodramatic in places. People show their emotions by shouting and screaming in this film, which is a slightly coarse way of portraying their feelings. Majidi's later works, such as the great Willow Tree, offer a greater depth.
A good film, which was followed by better ones.
Great idea, good setup but destroyed by bad ending
cliff-193 June 2009
Warning: Spoilers
First, I consider myself a fan of Majidi. His "Baran" is possibly my favorite film from Iran. I bought it based on his name, so it is only reluctantly that I post these comments.
The idea of the conflict between the son and his step-father is great, and certainly a well-known story. This one carries with it the tarnished dignity and lessened honor felt by Mehrollah.
But in order to set up the moral conflict Mehrollah faces at the end, the story takes some directions that are painfully implausible and ultimately destroy the ending.
****MAJOR SPOILER HERE**** The idea that a police officer would take a motorcycle so far away to get his wayward stepson is implausible. The idea that it might break down and he would just abandon it is ridiculous. The notion that he would start walking into the desert is just preposterous; any cagey guy like that would know to stay on the main road. So the setup that has him die is impossible. If Majidi wanted Mehrollah to confront a moral dilemma, having the two of them ambushed by bandits would do the job as well. I also longed to hear the stepfather show respect for Mehrollah's love for his mother and sister. That did not come.
The idea of the conflict between the son and his step-father is great, and certainly a well-known story. This one carries with it the tarnished dignity and lessened honor felt by Mehrollah.
But in order to set up the moral conflict Mehrollah faces at the end, the story takes some directions that are painfully implausible and ultimately destroy the ending.
****MAJOR SPOILER HERE**** The idea that a police officer would take a motorcycle so far away to get his wayward stepson is implausible. The idea that it might break down and he would just abandon it is ridiculous. The notion that he would start walking into the desert is just preposterous; any cagey guy like that would know to stay on the main road. So the setup that has him die is impossible. If Majidi wanted Mehrollah to confront a moral dilemma, having the two of them ambushed by bandits would do the job as well. I also longed to hear the stepfather show respect for Mehrollah's love for his mother and sister. That did not come.
This movie is calm and beautiful.
jowang1 April 2002
After the death of his father, 14 year old Mehrollah traveled to the southern town to find a job to support his mother and three baby sisters. Upon his return to his hometown with some gifts and the money he had saved for his family, Mehrollah was furious and confused to find the fact that his mother had remarried to a policeman and lived in a new home.
Although the policeman was a man of kind-hearted, Mehrollah refused to accept him to be his step-father. Mehrollah refused to go home to live with the new change, instead, he decorated and stayed in the old house that used to be his birth-father's.
Mehrollah tried everything to fight against his step-father, and even worse, he stoled the police-hand-gun from his step-father and ran away to a far away town. The policeman was mad and rode on his motocycle to the town, and caught Mehrollah.
On the home-bound road, they had a hard time lost in the wide desert and had to give up their broken-down motocycle. They walked on helplessly, thirsty and starving. The boy and his new father began to help each other under the hardship, and started a new relationship...
Director Majid Majidi is an expert who knows how to tell a simple story with deep meaning, with excellent camera language and very little dialogue.
This movie is calm and beautiful.
Although the policeman was a man of kind-hearted, Mehrollah refused to accept him to be his step-father. Mehrollah refused to go home to live with the new change, instead, he decorated and stayed in the old house that used to be his birth-father's.
Mehrollah tried everything to fight against his step-father, and even worse, he stoled the police-hand-gun from his step-father and ran away to a far away town. The policeman was mad and rode on his motocycle to the town, and caught Mehrollah.
On the home-bound road, they had a hard time lost in the wide desert and had to give up their broken-down motocycle. They walked on helplessly, thirsty and starving. The boy and his new father began to help each other under the hardship, and started a new relationship...
Director Majid Majidi is an expert who knows how to tell a simple story with deep meaning, with excellent camera language and very little dialogue.
This movie is calm and beautiful.
Majihi film
venkat19266 December 2006
Pedar (The Father) by Majid Majidhi. An Iranian film. Like most of the Iranian films the story is simple but told with artistic touches. The adolescent son working for his family comes back and finds that his widowed mother remarried a policeman. She explains that she had to marry again for social security. But the boy who loved his father before the accident could not stomach a step father. With all Hamletian fury he hates his step father without finding out what sort of a person the step father is. He runs away and the stepfather searches for him and finds him. On their return journey they have to undergo hardships while traversing the desert and empathy builds up between them. Majidhi's touches are there in many scenes. The accident which killed the boys father was just shown with the scene of the accident. He also knows when to stop the narrative. The boy and the stepfather lie dehydrated over a stream,. The photograph of the stepfather with his mother and sisters drifts from the pocket of the stepfather and stops at the nose of the boy indicating reconciliation and the boy's discovery of a new father. And then the film ends. The best acting is by the mother - the anguish and suffering of a poor woman (whatever the culture they live in) who is torn between the love to the son and love to the man who kindly gave security to her in a traditional society and jas neem a good father to her children.
Of course I think Majidhi's other film "the children of heaven" is much better film the story of how a bother and sister of a poor family share a pair of shoes between themselves.
Of course I think Majidhi's other film "the children of heaven" is much better film the story of how a bother and sister of a poor family share a pair of shoes between themselves.
This movie is calm and beautiful.
jowang4 April 2002
After the death of his father, 14 year old Mehrollah traveled to the southern town to find a job to support his mother and three baby sisters. Upon his return to his hometown with some gifts and the money he had saved for his family, Mehrollah was furious and confused to find the fact that his mother had remarried to a policeman and lived in a new home. Although the policeman was a man of kind-hearted, Mehrollah refused to accept him to be his step-father. Mehrollah refused to go home to live with the new change, instead, he decorated and stayed in the old house that used to be his birth-father's.
Mehrollah tried everything to fight against his step-father, and even worse, he stoled the police-hand-gun from his step-father and ran away to a far away town. The policeman was mad and rode on his motocycle to the town, and caught Mehrollah. On the home-bound road, they had a hard time lost in the wide desert and had to give up their broken-down motocycle. They walked on helplessly, thirsty and starving. The boy and his new father began to help each other under the hardship, and started a new relationship...
Director Majid Majidi is an expert who knows how to tell a simple story with deep meaning, with excellent camera language and very little dialogue. This movie is calm and beautiful.
Mehrollah tried everything to fight against his step-father, and even worse, he stoled the police-hand-gun from his step-father and ran away to a far away town. The policeman was mad and rode on his motocycle to the town, and caught Mehrollah. On the home-bound road, they had a hard time lost in the wide desert and had to give up their broken-down motocycle. They walked on helplessly, thirsty and starving. The boy and his new father began to help each other under the hardship, and started a new relationship...
Director Majid Majidi is an expert who knows how to tell a simple story with deep meaning, with excellent camera language and very little dialogue. This movie is calm and beautiful.
Pedar leave you shattered into small little pieces of love that you would collect together long after you've watched it..
lili-ivailova6 November 2015
Thank you for the wonderful movie, Iranian cinema.I love Majidi and I don't care about imperfections..Its perfection is in the way the story is so simple that every movement,every word is gigantic, it echoes and leaves a print in the mind. Cinematography is so vivid, though I think the colors come from emotions, not the colors themselves. It is quiet movie, the silence broken by outbursts..Its a movie of contrasts , of love and hate..but going back to love ultimately. I cry a lot when watching Majidi's movies ...and I feel angry about him making them so heavy, almost impossible to watch at times because you get so wrapped up with characters' life situation, but then the end wouldn't crush upon with such a power and symbolism if it wasn't like that..I cry but then want to stay with the characters a lot more than the movie allows.Contrasts.Majidi is Van Ghog in cinema.Taking normal life situations and coloring them with colors, very dark and very bright. With lots of tenderness and kids' innocence.
Majid Majidi
yusufpiskin6 June 2021
The period when the West did not literally plunder the Middle East countries. The period in which original art was made comfortably in the Middle East. A movie that proves that a cliché story can turn into diamonds in the hands of a master. And Majid Majidi.
There is nothing a road trip cannot fix...!!!
PANDIAN1206216 February 2024
Majid majidi is one among the favourite directors across the globe known for his natural simplicity & expressing the human emotions as realistic as possible...
The film explores a father-son relationship, emotional bonding in distress which reminds us that world is so large yet so small if you pick the right emotion...
The perfection is in the way the story is so simple that every movement,every word is gigantic, it echoes and leaves a impression in the mind,whileCinematography is so vivid unravels the various forms of human emotions and its necessity making the human a typical social beast who can't survive on his own...
Overall a must watch movie that falls under a category to watch out before every individual's lifetime...
The film explores a father-son relationship, emotional bonding in distress which reminds us that world is so large yet so small if you pick the right emotion...
The perfection is in the way the story is so simple that every movement,every word is gigantic, it echoes and leaves a impression in the mind,whileCinematography is so vivid unravels the various forms of human emotions and its necessity making the human a typical social beast who can't survive on his own...
Overall a must watch movie that falls under a category to watch out before every individual's lifetime...
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