La pomme

Based on a true story and starring the very same people involved in it, this movie (by first time director Samira Makhmalbaf) tells the story of Zahra and Massoumef, twelve year old twins living on a very humble neighborhood in Tehran. Virtually imprisoned in their own home by their impoverished, ignorant, fundamentalist father and blind mother, they were freed by Iran social services after neighbors complained that the children had not bathed and could not speak. Makhmalbaf shows the twins attempting to function beyond their parents' wall after the social workers have intervened. They lack social skills to the extent of being unaware that they have to pay for food. Made when she was just 17 years old (probably with some help from her father, the acclaimed Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf) this film stands very well in the Iranian tradition of social realist, humanist cinema that came out beginning in the mid 1980s. It's so moving, it will be hard for you not to cry while watching it.

"The apple" is very much from the school of Kiarostami, Makhmalbaf & Co. Some call it Iranian Cinema, and I have my background info from a Documentary on "Iranian Cinema", too. Directed by Samira Makhbalbaf, the daughter of the Makhbalhaf I was referring to before. Wait, let's start again: Samira, undoubtedly influenced by her father Mohsen, made a movie about a story which was in the papers. Her style is moralist, she has a mission: Show the 'real story' behind the news. Tell us about the perspective of the real people behind the story. The artistic means is to take the 'real people' and let them (rein)act the things, and film it. All this is done in a nice style, which shows that it was done _for_ and not against those people. In the end she has a message: the apple of eden (=see the world, don't stay at home, enjoy enlightenment, take part in buying and selling, have contact with other people...) is a scary thing, but it is not that scary as people would think. This fear makes them do such things like locking in their children for 11 years. That is the message, and it is told in a charming way. Still, personally I could not quite identify, because this is not my problem. There Abbas' messages (also told through the vehicle of 'real' people) are much closer to my life.

SIB recreates the true story of twin 12-year-old daughters whose poor elderly father and blind mother kept locked away inside their small house for their entire lives without any playmates or visitors. The girls are released to experience the sweet joys and harsh dangers of the outside world. The actual family members involved in the case play themselves in the movie. On many levels, the ending is as poetic as it is disturbing.

SIB is a 1998 movie made in Iran. Aida Mohammadkhani, the lead child actress from the great Iranian film BADKONAKE SEFID, has a cameo in SIB as a girl in the playground.

I can't add much to the review by Bob the Moo from Birmingham, who pretty much sums up the strengths of this film. However, as an illustration of the skill of the film-maker I would like to mention one scene that stands out in my memory, not in detail so as not to 'spoil', where a sense of incipient menace is subtly hinted at - one is almost expecting something horrible to go wrong to prove that it was right to keep the girls imprisoned for their own safety and this looks like being the moment when it happens; one hardly dares hope that it will have a happy and positive outcome - but it doesn't. It turns out there is nothing to worry about at all. This sounds like a non-event, but I found the subtlety with which this point was made quite outstanding.

The film is a pure delight, more powerful than any heavy diatribe against repressive regimes. The compassion with which all participants are presented in their own contexts, particularly the father who could have been demonised but isn't, is also outstanding. No judgements are made, and the lessons are all the more clear and convincing for that.

This is a film that stands out in my mind, both visually and symbolically, as clearly today as when I saw it several years ago.

Director Samira Makhmalbaf in her movie Sib (The Apple) speaks of how two young girls are confined to the four-walls of their house. At a time when women are treated on par with men, it is saddening to see that there are places in this world (Iran for one) where people still consider it taboo to educate the woman child, or as in this movie even let them outside their homes to see how the world looks like.

There's more to it. Their father is a 65-year-old beggar and their mom a blind lady who is paranoid about her daughters going to school or even outside their house. Their folks don't ever keep the girls clean. They are even deprived of a decent bath all these years. The result: The girls are unable to think like normal kids and grow up slightly deranged. Other than the blooming flowerpot outside their house and the sun, the girls have hardly witnessed what God's creation (Earth) looks like. This mere fact shocks viewers IMMEDIATELY. The pathetic plight of the girls will make viewers reach for their hankies.

But there's hope. They do get to come out and see the world and learn things when a social service organization helps them out. What happens, next and how they do it is for you to see.

The movie in its entirety moves more like a documentary and less like a movie. It is definitely not the run-of-the-mill cinema. In-fact it is on a higher plane than even commercial cinema. The social message is so powerful that the movie leaves a strong impression about the future of the woman child in places like Iran etc.

Critically acclaimed, Samira directed this movie when she was only 19. Kudos to her. At a age whilst most of us haven't even figured out life, here is someone who speaks of social problems plaguing third world countries. Must view for those who look for a social message in movies.