Sokout

A little blind Tajik boy each day comes late to his job. The reason is his joy of life: The voice of around. He likes to listen to the music of nature, he likes to be as other people to see it. Unfortunately it costs high in his life. He loses his job, just because he loves music. The owner of the house where boy and his mother live tell them to free the apartment and they remain without anything. But boy continues to enjoy the life... The movie makes hearts ache. The song which I liked in this movie so much was "Charo hargiz namepursi?" (Why you never ask?) of Daler Nazarov which performed very well by Oleg Fezov. I recommend this movie to watch for all those who love the life!

The director Mohsen Makhmalbaf made a number of acclaimed films in his native Iran over the Eighties and Nineties, but with the 1998 effort SOKOUT ("Silence") he moved farther afield for his shooting location: Tajikistan, where the locals speak a Persian dialect mostly intelligible to Iranians, but the culture is an exotic mix of Central Asian and Soviet traditions.

Khorshid (Tahmineh Normatova), a blind boy aged around 10, is employed in the workshop of an instrument maker, tuning the instruments. His mother (Goibibi Ziadolahyeva), abandoned by her husband, urges him to work hard, for their landlord is demanding the rent and threatening eviction. Unfortunately, Khorshid is particularly prone to arriving late at work because he is easily distracted from his commute by the sound of music coming from the radio or street musicians. Nadereh (Nadereh Abdelahyeva), the adopted daughter of the instrument maker, tries to keep Khorshid out of trouble. This is a mystical film, by which Khorshid's desire to follow the beauty of music above all else serves as a metaphor for the renunciant's search for God.

However, that mystical point is made quite subtly, and I suspect most audiences outside the region won't pick up on it. What will strike most foreign viewers is the beautiful imagery and soundtrack. Filming outside Iran in a country with less strict dress codes, Makhmalbaf's camera focuses heavily on female faces and the colourful floral prints of Dushabe's women. In Nadereh and another young cast member he captures that brief moment where girlhood gives way to womanhood. We hear a number of musical instruments from Central Asia, but besides the local folk music the dramatic opening of Beethoven's Fifth figures prominently, tying this exotic locale to a more universal ideal. Things are not entirely rosy, however. The innocence of the children is juxtaposed at a few points with the gritty reality of post-Soviet Tajikistan, now recovering from a bloody civil war and marked by poverty, child labour, and a reborn religious extremism.

The running time is short at 72 minutes, which might disappoint some. Also, Makhmalbaf chose non-professionals to play the roles, and their lines are often delivered somewhat woodenly. However, such wooden dialog may have been desirable to the director, as that slow speech makes the film easier for his native Iranian audience to understand. Still, while not a major masterpiece, this is a visually and musically attractive film and worth watching for anyone wanting a slice of Central Asian drama (or at least one Iranian director's vision of it).

"The Silence" is not an ordinary movie even though it looks simple. It is the story of a blind boy Hursit who is trying to make both his and mother's living by tuning instruments in local traditional instrument shop.His father has apparently left his family to Russia and Hursit and the mother is having a hard time because they can't pay the rent and they are faced with the dancer of being thrown to the street. The movie uses Beethoven's 5th Symphony in the final scene. The scenery of bazaars,the local imagery of an Eastern town,the local instrument builders and vendors add so much to the atmosphere to the movie. And a little note for those who have just recognized the Iranian movie..Before the Islamic revolution in Iran, the director of the movie was a political activist and because of that he was jailed for more than 4 years, and was let out of jail only after the revolution. After the revolution he abandoned politics, because he had believed that the chief problem in Iran was the cultural one. The movie was also banned in Iran.If you like simple real stories about real life I suggest you see the movie.

The boy Khorshid has to earn a living tuning instruments. He's blind. He does an excellent job, but his boss doesn't think so. Khorshid's mother won't be able to pay the rent if her son gets fired. What can be done? This film both shows the hard life of a blind boy and his mother in Azerbaijan as well as beautiful images -- and lots of music, of course! if you wanna hear Beethoven's 5th, recently spiced up inna hip hop stylee by A+, in a Oriental style, then you gotta check out this beautiful film by Iran's leading filmmaker Mohsen Mahmalbaf. Additionally, _Sokhout_ is social commentary both on life in Eastern countries as well as the relationship between East and West...it is not a coincidence that Makhmalbaf chose Beethoven instead of Classical Persian music.

Hearing music with a camera. The best Mohsen Makhmalbaf film yet for me. He is a director who can create magic with sound for a film. We glimpsed this in "Gabbeh", made 2 years earlier. Forget the narrative, it is the magical skill of combining music with innocently beautiful visuals here. A young blind tuner of musical instruments turns composer. The film is a tribute to Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony."

The attempt to bring in animal sounds into the music was accomplished well. The mural behind the kids at the bus stop is clearly indicative of the fact that the film was shot in Tajikistan and not in Iran