Lição de Casa

I hate the influence of Pluto in Scorpio on these children.

The problem is that teachers aren't interested in excuses. They're interested in homework. One student, who clearly has mental health issues, was punished by his first-grade teacher, who hit him so hard with a ruler that the ruler broke.

Wondering about current status of the education system of Iran, well, educational system is changed a lot in a good way, physical abuse is forbidden and homeworks are much less than before, but it is still far from an ideal system. Even today, we still read in news about physical abuse in school....

In 'Homework' Kiarostami, interviews children on their personal opinions to homework. It is a great documentary, funny, sweet, and so easy to watch. Kiarostami literally films the children and interviews them and that's it, but by doing this he captures the children in such a great way that you wonder that Truffaut, is not directing the kids from off camera! The children brim with the kind of charisma that we'd forgot children could do in a film let alone in real life, and seems to seek to remind us what being a child was all about. 'Homework' whilst being a fine film in it's own right also seems to serve as an important precursor for Nicolas Philibert's 2002 documentary on rural school life 'Être et avoir', and provokes the same positive feeling as that film and also of Truffaut's 'L'agent Poche'.

This documentary is released in 1989, but obviously is filmed at least 2 or 3 years before that, as they talk several times about the war with Saddam.

Even though I was born in 1991, and didn't went to school until 1996 (almost 10 years after this documentary is filmed) but I totally understand this little, innocent fellas, Because I raised under the same toxic educational system. Everyday, I faced emotional abuse as well as physical abuse of myself or my classmates in the school. To be honest, I really do not remember even a single happy day at school, and that makes me really sad.

By watching this documentary, I remembered that I had a teacher in elementary school who touched kids too, in a sexual manner. Even though I didn't let him touch me and he refused to do that again after one or two tries, but I had seen sexual abuse of my friends in the class, in front of other classmates. We were under pressure, and we never educated to talk about sexual abuse, it was a shame for ourselves to talk about such things, and they did what they wanted with us, with no worries at all.

Watching this documentary bring back all those bad memories of school years. I feel pitty for myself, my classmates, and my generation in general.

It was by far the hardest film I have ever seen. My eyes was wet all over the film, for several times, I had to pause it for minutes and take a walk before continue watching it, and just before ending, when that poor little fella started singing Ey Khoda (O God), by hearing the first verse, I couldn't control myself anymore and started crying. Only those who raised in such educational system, can fully understand emotional and physical abuse that this Kiarostami is trying to picture.

P. S. For those of you who are wondering about current status of the education system of Iran, well, even though I do not have a kid myself, but as I know, educational system is changed a lot, in a good way, physical abuse is forbidden and homeworks are much less than before, but it is still far from an ideal system. Even today, we still read in news about physical abuse in school (several poor little fellas hospitalized or even died, and I'm sure there is much more cases which do not goes public at all).

I had the great privilege of being invited with several other students to sample " herbal tea " and documentaries at the home of a university film tutor who we shall call Tony . Ah yes " herbal tea " and I'm educated enough to know what a euphemism is . Tony was a perfect host and as we waited for the herbal tea to brew we stood admiring his book collection . Every book on philosophy was on view as was every book written by every film critic . Tony returned to the living room carrying a tray containing herbal tea and cake to which we helped ourselves . We discussed amid much chin rubbing what documentary we should watch . I was too interested in the herbal tea to take part in the ballot but the students took a vote and it was decided we would watch Abbas Kiarostami's HOMEWORK and I sat back on the sofa waiting for the herbal tea to take effect . Unfortunately I quickly realised two things . Firstly that the "herbal tea " was herbal tea and not cannabis leaves and secondly that HOMEWORK was going to be a rather boring documentary

The documentary gets off to what might be classed as a vaguely interesting start has lines of Persian boys aged about 7 or 8 years old shouting " DOWN WITH SADDAM " which gives you a clue what period it was filmed . It goes down downhill from here though due to Kiarostami insisting on filming the documentary via talking head interviews . Hence we see a male child being asked " Do you do your homework ? " or " Who helps you with your homework ? " or " do you get beaten if you don't do your homework " or " Do you watch cartoons " . This goes on and on ad nuseuem and quickly becomes tedious . It also begs the question as to what the audience are actually learning via these interviews . Is it even revealed what the cartoons are ?

There are some interesting comments such as when a child says his father captured a couple of Iraqi sailors , chopped their heads off and threw their bodies into the sea ( Compare this how Iran presently treats captured sailors ) , the wailing child who hopefully hasn't found courage in the interceding years and is now employed as head of the Iranian army and the father who rambles on and on only stopping to say " Would you like to ask me a question ? " . There's one other interesting point and that is the amount of children who want to become engineers and you can't help wondering if they went on to build a nuclear power plant

But this is a fairly uninteresting and dare I say pointless documentary and I don't want to say anything more positive about it as you may feel as disappointed by it as I was disappointed by Tony's herbal tea . I'll certainly be taking advantage of my host's hospitality in the near future but I doubt if I'll be going out of my way to watch anymore Abbas Kiarostami documentaries

Kiarostami exposes some of the hardships of being a young student in Iran. With a few simple shots and a few basic questions, he manages to sketch out both the problems and the joys of childhood.

Kiarostami (playing himself, or simply "playing director") sets up his camera for a few days in a grade school in order to find out about children and their attitudes and struggles with homework. Kids of every personality (from hyper to shy, bragging to quiet) all felt the need to lie about the importance of homework in their life. We laugh each time a young interviewee tells a small fib and says they prefer the difficulty of their homework to watching cartoons after school. But often the truth of the matter is they reason they struggle with their homework is because both parents might be illiterate, or older brothers and sisters provide little support as well. Homework often takes a back seat to the reality of life for these children who are torn between the obligations of being a child and the obligations of being an active member of a family struggling to make ends meet.

An excellent little film - hard-going for the the impatient moviegoer who might need EVERYTHING spelled out for him/her, but for the rest of us, it's a joy to pull out the many meanings and truths embedded in this film.