Mattone e specchio

As the other reviews tend to the extreme (vote 1 and 10, respectively), I feel obliged to provide another take at this early Iranian film. My verdict is between those of the other commentators, and they both have valid points. The experience will also depend on your understanding of Iranian history and society.

Actually the film is rather unique and difficult to judge. It appears amateurish at times, at other times it comes off as a true masterpiece, then there is the overly long and repetitive middle section with the baby which would benefit from cuts in the editing. Indeed the weakness is the overly long scenes and lack of focus. The plot centers on fear and responsibility, apparently influenced by political events of the time. Yet one of the topics would have been sufficient.

Nevertheless I recommend this film (especially viewed in wide screen in the cinema) for any serious film enthusiast. There are some masterful and moving shots and scenes, not the least the outdoor scenes in Tehran and the scenes at the orphan clinic. For me, the best scenes are at the end, the hypocrisy revealed at the TV store and the ending when the main character leaves everything behind and takes to the road in the sunset.

If you like LOTS of baby screaming, this is the film for you. If you like Godard films where if someone asks what time it is and you get a ten minute head-rattling dissertation on the meaning of time, this is the film for you. It's not bad film-making but it's truly horrible film content.

I understand those who want to intellectualize this film into being something it is not but for those grounded in reality be prepared for boredom on an epic scale - with LOTS of baby screaming for a soundtrack. I have nothing against anti-plot films and I like films that have something to say. But an endless string of characters spouting high school philosophy in the guise of being profound is mind numbing. What an ordeal.

The movie opens with a dazzling cinemascope shot of night-time Tehran covered in brightly lit signs, which could be Las Vegas if not that so many are Farsi. Times have changed since then. The hook that draws you into the movie is the fantastic sense of Tehran's spaces at night, and a particular metaphysical architectural feel like you can get from de Chirico's paintings.

What the movie is actually about is having the confidence to live life even when you're living in a panopticon society where everyone disapproves of deviations from the normal.

It is a movie that has a love story, between Hashem and Taji, a taxi driver and sex worker, who bond as reluctant Samaritans when a baby is abandoned.

Will Hashem have the confidence to overcome his neighbours' disapproval, will he seize what seems like a mystical opportunity (and after all what else is life but a mystical opportunity?), a chance at hard-won happiness and belonging for all three.

The movie, when it moves into its moral predicament phase, is incredibly intimate, bringing us into embryonic family scenes that billions have faced over history (how to stop a baby crying, how to look after a baby with next to no money).

It is also a rich entry into the canon of "the city is a wolf" movies (Midnight Cowboy is another, and I got that quote from the Russian movie Brat or one of its sequels). A character opines that one of the main reasons we have institutions, is loneliness, filling a gap left by people who do not want to care or look after one another, necessary once we have so extravagantly proliferated that we have large cities to hide in. The movie is particularly astonishing when it lingers in the orphanage, showing all the wonderful terrifying babies without parents. I wonder if it prompted people to adopt after watching it?

The title of the movie is a conundrum for me, having watched it twice I still cannot marry it up with the quotation it's based on, "What the young see in a mirror, the old see in a brick". The first time I saw the movie Golestan was there and had got bored of answering the question, and I've never seen a convincing explanation. He might be saying that in life, if you're not careful, you end up being a moulded, harsh, conformist lump, and so you don't need to look into a mirror to see that, you just need to look at a brick. I raise it only to say that you can absolutely appreciate the movie without answering the riddle.

There are not many movies that demonstrate Tehran and the society in Iran in the time this movie was made. It offers not only such amazing spaces, but also a story that symbolically narrates the great fears of a society lost in their lack of understanding of the world. Great ending and some amazing scenes such as the one in the orphanage, the outdoor and the driving scenes, as well as the walks in the alleyways. If you like a movie to make you think, this is a good option for you. And I also would like to mention that I appreciated the remastered version of the movie by RAI channel.