Bazi

northwest film forum

Knowing when not to take "No" as an answer, Emami is one determined young heroine.

Related Content

• The Weekly Wire: This Week's Recommended Events
  March 28, 2012
• The Weekly Wire: This Week's Recommended Events
  April 11, 2012
• SIFF: Week 1 Picks & Pans
  May 16, 2012
• SIFF Week 2: 20 New Picks & Pans
  May 23, 2012
• Comment of the Day: People are Annoying, But Don't Knock Cuban's Commercials
  April 9, 2012

More About

• Brian Miller
• Niccolo Machiavelli
• Melika Emami
• Gholamreza Remezani
• Abbas Kiarostami

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

The wall separating a little girl from potential companions is here a metaphor for the separation between Iranian reformers and hard-liners. Or Iran and Iraq. Or Sunnis and Shiites. Or the Muslim world and Israel. Or the West and Islam. Or maybe it's just a brick wall that thwarts bored young Saraya (Melika Emami, who looks to be about 5) from finding a playmate during a frustrating afternoon, filmed in what seems like real time. Unhappily confined to the family courtyard with her toys and dolls, she gets no help from her generally patient mother indoors. Saraya is tortured by hearing some new neighbor kids on the other side of the barrier, but her mother won't let them mingle until it's determined "how they've been raised." Cagey little schemer that she is, Saraya then uses every pout and ploy at her disposal to get what she wants. The movie's big plot turn comes with a purple-and-white striped ball that drops onto her side; she uses it with a cunning that Machiavelli would admire. But politics and symbolism aside, director Gholamreza Remezani succeeds in capturing a pure childish determination that any parent will recognize. There's one amazing shot where his young heroine, ears quiveringly attuned to the giggling voices over the wall, practically wills herself through the bricks and mortar, her face opening up like a flower to the sun. She seems to enter into their merry conversation, every word of which registers in her widening brown eyes.

Bazi begins a two-week series of three child's-eye movies from Iran. This weekend brings 1995's The White Balloon (see film calendar), written by Abbas Kiarostami, followed by the 1987 Where Is the Friend's Home?, which he directed. BRIAN MILLER