Le cycliste

I watched this becouse Sabzian mentioned this film in Close up 1990.

The wife of Nasim, an Afghan immigrant in Iran, is gravely ill. He needs money to pay for her care, but his day labor digging wells does not pay enough. A friend connects Nasim to a two-bit promoter who sells tickets to watch Nasim ride a bicycle continuously for a week.

What strikes me most about this film is not even the film itself, which has many good qualities. It is the world that is being filmed. With the Middle East constantly in the news, the region is a common focus of American movies. But seeing the people through the eyes of a director who lives there... it is a completely different experience.

One scholar has analyzed the film as an allegory which parallels the exploitation that Afghan refugees suffer from in Iran and from which they are unable to escape. I do not know enough to comment on this, though it is interesting to note that Mohsen Makhmalbaf, although Iranian, does seem to have a preoccupation with the Afghan people.

In the aftermath of the Soviet invasion and civil war, hundreds of thousands of Afghans fled across the border with Iran. There they struggled to survive, offering themselves as day labourers at exploitive wages, harassed by officials and just ignored by the bulk of Iranian society. Mohsen Makhmalbaf's 1987 film BICYCLERAN ("The Cyclist") is an allegory for the Afghan refugee experience,

Nasim (Moharram Zaynalzadeh) must pay the hospital stay of his ailing wife and bring up his son Jomeh (Mohammad Reza Maleki), but even backbreaking labour as a well-digger doesn't pay the bills. When a local business learns that Nasim once rode a bicycle for three nonstop, he offers the desperate man the chance to save his family: ride a bicycle for a week in a makeshift circus ring.

Makhmalbaf communicates Nasim's lack of humanity by giving him very few lines. Most of the film consists of arguments among the gamblers and local politicians who stand to profit or lose from Nasim's act, as in the background he circles around and around and around. This film would already be heartrending if it were a straight-up tale, but Makhmalbaf makes it even more poignant with a light dusting of magic realism.

Though less elegant than some of his later films like NUN VA GULDOON (released internationally as "A Moment of Innocence"), this is a memorable film and it's easy to see how it established Makhmalbaf's reputation internationally. Iranian cinema holds many delights, and this is one of its triumphs.

This film brilliantly depicts two aspects at the same time - plight of an Afghan refugee in Iran and a man's love for his partner. Set sometime in the 80's, this movie revolves around the life of an old man and his ailing wife. The cost of his wife's treatment compels the poor old man to accept a gruelling proposal from an Iranian circus owner to do something he had never done before and that too, for a continuous period of 7 days without any stoppages, whatsoever. Directed brilliantly by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, this movie is a 'must watch' because it makes you cry even without an explicit show of emotion being displayed on the screen. In these days where marriages fall apart at the drop of a hat, this movie reminds us that we are here for a greater cause.

A middle-aged Afghani man is alarmed when his wife falls very ill in Teheran. He has no money to pay the bill. He must look after his young son. To raise money to pay for his wife's care he undertakes an endurance contest. He attempts to ride a bicycle for 5 days without stopping.

He circles the same city square, surrounded by onlookers. This is a spectacle. He is a showman in a circus environment. The cyclist becomes the talk of the town. Will he make it? Bets are placed. Various gamblers try to sabotage his attempts, so they will win their bets. Various persons in the crowd cheer the cyclist on, making him their temporary hero.

Director Makhmalbaf has made a splendid film about an ordinary man, driven to desperate acts. Various scenes in the movie are elegantly shot. Performances are credible. This is one film where I really cared about what happened to the characters.

veloc