p_radulescu

... a cinematic approach calling in mind Parajanov and his Sayat Nova ... Paula Asadi's apparition in the movie, a diaphanous dance, like she's coming from a god, impossible to define ... a prophetess telling an ethereal message ... and the birds drawing high in the sky paths seeming to go towards an unknown deity ... Baha'i originated in Iran, where it is now forbidden, it is hosted by Israel, a land forbidden for Iranians ... a forbidden faith, beautiful as a forbidden dream, in a forbidden land ... and the impression that the movie is made just in front of your eyes, through trial and error ... a cinematic journey, inviting us to meditate together with them, about faith and reality, about the link (illusory? Certain?) between the mundane and the beyond ... the father and the son are both agnostics, however their difference of age makes the difference ... for the father all he witnesses in the Baha'i Gardens puts into question his ways ... the son is a rebel, with clear-cut certitudes and definitive answers ... we all passed through his age ... we all were once rebels ... and the meditation is ultimately not only about a religion (or any religion), it is about the path between objective and illusion ... our objective universe and the universe of art, or of faith ... but this is common to all great Iranian filmmakers ...

We have here actually two movies. The movie about Vivian and the one about Maloof. Each of the two is highly unorthodox. The movie about Vivian exists only in disparate fragments that are discovered by the movie of Maloof. The movie of Maloof is created in front of our eyes: productionism as in the masterpieces of the twenties last century. Vivian exists only as and when Maloof unexpectedly discovers the unexpected: a new evidence about her, out of the blue. Sheets of paper, shoes, hats, invoices, stills, footage, a new witness who had known Vivian, realizing now that it was the elephant in the room. But also Maloof exists only as and when he finds out of the blue something new about Vivian, and decides how to continue. And for us it is the same: both the life of Vivian and the story of Maloof are the expecting the unexpected. She was a crazy genius. He is a hell of a story teller.