Les enfants de Belle Ville

I have recently seen all his movies(Asghar Farhadi), after he won the Oscar on 2011. this one is the best I believe. Although, much less people might prefer this one to "A separation" or "About Eli".

This one shows how difficult is to overcome the complex situations in our life. no matter how hard we try, or how sincere we are, there is always someone or something who will add to the heavy weight of sins(dark pieces, empty holes, or whatever you name it) we carry; resulting in THE yielding, and then us: watching hopelessly ourselves @ the very beginning.

This film shows the complicated relations in modern life very well. the weakness in the human beings, no matter how strong he seems to be. how the wind blows and destroys all the castles we made of love and tolerance.... how a single doubt could lead to complete failure.

I believe in this film the yielding happens when the uncle propose the disabled girl to "Ala" as an exchange for his friend's life. This was the critical moment when "Ala" failed to resist the tensions from the society and lost everything he'd gained including love & victory...

The slow, endless Iranian art films, so omnipresent in film festivals since the 80s, are by now, an either love it or hate it proposition. I now fall into the hate it category, jaded and bored by their sheer numbers, similarity of themes, characters, boring landscapes, and slow pace.

However, I do still see a couple every year to confirm, or review my perception of them. Besides, one can't judge all Iranian art films in a certain light, though the art form does tend to make the viewer take those extreme positions. So, I saw this film (called "Beautiful City")here - the name of the juvenile detention center the main character comes from. I found it entertaining and fresh, though the drab scenery and sameness of themes, landscapes, and characters are there.

It's an interesting (and again, entertaining, not endless like most) look at parts of Iranian society not often shown. These include delinquent youth, drug dealers and their hoods, the very negotiable (economically and religiously) Islamic death penalty, and prostitution on various levels.

I wonder whether films like this are shown in Iran? Of course, the masses would never run to see this movie. And obviously, all these Iranian films are intended for foreign (mostly western viewing), particularly at festivals. But I wonder whether anybody can just show up at a cinema and see it, or is it shown at semi-private showings for a select audience. If it is, how can this distorted Islamic government continue?

Anyway, that's the most interesting point of the film. It shows (whether true or not) that the government in Iran is not that Islamic, not that intolerant, somewhat democratic. But the society, under those black clothes, and automatic "God is great" messages, is as corrupt as the world's most corrupt, and more purely capitalistic than the social democratic capitalism we have today.

In the film, everything, from death sentences to pardons, from marriages to an opportunity for a life-saving medical operation, not to mention drugs and people, can be bought and sold with Tomans (Iranian cash).

"Shahr-e Ziba" graces the screen with my 7/10 rating, and I have to say, I liked it. The acting captures the nuances of characters navigating the complexities of love and life in the bustling city of Tehran. The film editing weaves together interconnected stories, reflecting the chaotic beauty of urban existence. Its strength lies in its portrayal of the pursuit of dreams and the resilience of the human spirit amidst adversity. The music, infused with Persian melodies, adds emotional depth, and the cinematography paints a vivid tapestry of the city's vibrant streets and hidden corners. "Shahr-e Ziba" is a heartfelt ode to Tehran, a reminder that even in the midst of chaos, there is poetry to be found, and my liking for it is as enduring as the city's timeless charm.

Farhadi and alidoosti's second and in my opinion best film. The film belongs to the time that he was interested in poor class people lives and hasn't shifted to intellectual middle class people. The only weakness of this film is its somehow tv like atmosphere and the reason is that Farhadi was new in cinema and before that had directed and written lots of TV masterpieces. Actually this film was one episode of his tv serie 'the story of a city," but because af its really dark and bitter story, he didn't get approval.

In the west, there are occasional cries for so-called "victim's justice", where the person who suffers from a crime has a say in the treatment of the criminal: this deceptively simple film looks at how such a system works where it's actually practiced, under Islamic law in Iran. At first, the movie's set-up seems primitive, and there seems to be undue absence of emphasis on the crime itself: the immediately sympathetic characters all claim that their friend, a murderer, "doesn't deserve to die", but this is merely asserted and never proved. But as the film proceeds, it becomes clear that this is not the point: instead we see how, with the final verdict put in the hands of the dead person's father, responsibility for the killer's fate in passed onto those (both the father and also those who must plead with him for clemency) who cannot deal with it, and who will find no closure through being asked to take it on. The film's depiction of the role of women in an Islamic society is also perceptive and interesting. The subtle ending perfectly concludes a quiet tragedy that ultimately delivers more than is promised at the start.