GABBEH

Iran, 1995, 74 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

Gabbeh is a beautiful film drawing on ancient Iranian myths. Gabbeh means carpet. It is also the name of the central character who seems to be the spirit of the carpet.

The film was made in south-east Iran, in the desert as well as in the forests. It also shows the beauty of carpets and carpet-making, the illustrations on the carpets. It also embodies age-old myths of love, marriage, truth and deception.
The film was directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, a veteran of the Iranian film industry. He was to go on to make Kandahar in 2001. His wife is also a film-maker, The Day I Became a Woman. is daughter, Samira, has also become famous with such films as The Apple, Blackboards and At Five in the Afternoon.

1. A film of beauty? A film of Iran? The Iranian countryside? The ancient stories of Iran?

2. The locations, the town, the forests, the river? The beauty of the landscapes? The colours drawn down from the landscapes into the weaving of the carpets? The musical score?

3. The focus on the young woman, her name, the spirit of the carpet? Her telling a story to an old couple? The tale within the carpet? Her background in the nomadic tribe, the weavers of carpets, their lives and their observations of nature? Her falling in love with the young man, his following the tribe, riding? Her father forbidding her to marry? Her uncle, a teacher, his having to find a wife - and his going to the river, a young woman, a poet, there to meet him? Gabbeh and her having to wait until her mother gives birth but her having to wait because of the sister lost, searching for the goat, the mountains, her dying? Gabbeh finally going off with the young man, going through the mountains, to a contemporary town - with the fires from the burning oil wells?

4. The old couple, the man and his wife, their discussion about washing the carpet? The speculation about the story in the carpet, the identity of the young man and the young woman seen on horseback?

5. The old man to whom Gabbeh tells her story, his falling in love with her, asking her to elope with him? Her continuing to tell the story?

6. The conclusion of the story, Gabbeh's father, the pursuit, the shooting, the announcement that Gabbeh and the young man are dead?

7. Gabbeh and her telling the old man that this was a deceit so that her sisters wouldn't do the same as she did? Her disappearance - and only the carpet remaining?

8. The simplicity and mythical aspects of the stories? The telling of this kind of story in 1995, the situation in Iran, politically, socially, the place of women, patriarchal customs? The symbolism in the carpets, the stories and the storytelling?