TEARS IN THE COLD

Iran, 2004, 100 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Azizollah Hamidnezhad.

Tears in the Cold is a fine film which achieves well what it set out to do. It is set in the Kurd region of Iran, a problem area for the independence of the Kurds all during the 20th century. The Kurds, in Turkey, Iraq and Iran, have wanted a homeland and, for a brief period in the 1920s, had one. The strong powers have not supporter and independent Kurdish nation.

The film focuses on a military base in the mountains. The leading character is an expert at mine detecting and is brought in, after several deaths by mine explosion, to clear the paths and the roads and the mountainside. He encounters a young shepherdess who works on the hills, he tries to get her to go onto the other side, but she persists, often making noise to detract the minesweepers.

She is part of a Kurdish group that is working in resistance and determines that the mine detector should be killed.

The film shows the couple on the mountainsides, their talking. It also shows them in the town, meeting at a bookshop and then getting a lift home where there is an assassination attempt on the soldier. Finally, they are caught in a blizzard and have to spend time in a cave where she intends to kill him but he saves her life after she has sprained her ankle. The ending is tragic.

The film shows the realities of war and violence. It shows the realities of independence movements. It also shows the reality of people getting to know and understand and respect one another so that war then seems unimportant.

1. The impact of the film, moving? The title and the reference to the sad events and outcomes of the film, the wintry mountains?

2. The mountain locations, the military base, the roads, the town? The mountainsides, the cave? The seasons and the snowstorm? A strong sense of realism? Musical score?

3. The situation of the Kurds, their resistance, Iranian forces confronting them? The battles, the raids, the assassination attempts? The laying of mines and the destruction by mines? The reasons for war, the sad futilities of war? The motivations on each side?

4. The military base, the personnel, the soldier shooting at the shepherdess because he was bored, the officers, punishments? The mine detector and the accident?

5. The arrival of the expert, his work in the field, his skills? His telling the shepherdess to go away, going to apologise to her after the sheep was shot? His work, penalty for talking with the enemy? His leave, in the town, at the bookshop? His surprise at the shepherdess and her reading? The lift, the rain, going at the back, the lift for the old man and his being wounded? His return to the base, his continued work, the prospect of military service ending? His friend and their work together, his death? The shift on the mountainside, his going up the mountain, finding the cave? Encountering the shepherdess? His not suspecting her? His getting the wood, caring for the fire, for her sprained ankle, for the cold, sharing his food? Not wanting her to go to sleep, taking the scarf, getting the thread, getting more wood and helping them to survive? His taking her down the mountainside, the attack from the Kurds, the military saving them? Their recovery? Their both going to see the old man in the hospital?

6. The woman, her being in the Resistance, laying the mines, with the other members of the group, the telephone connection in the cave? Her orders to kill the soldier? Seeing him in the town, the books, the lift, not wanting to be in the front of the vehicle? Picking up the old man, his death? Her getting to understand him a little better? Her work with the sheep, her distracting the minesweeper and his death? In the cave, frustration with the animals, spraining her ankle? Her eating the bread and not giving it to the soldier, changing her mind after his sharing and kindness? Her wanting to die, his keeping her alive? Her getting the gun, wanting to shoot him, unable to do so? Blocking him out in the snow, changing her mind and letting him back in, her survival? The attack on the hill, her recovery? The pathos of his standing on the mine, his watching her running towards him, her death?

7. The glimpse of the Kurdish Resistance, the personalities, their motivation, the shepherdess and her brother having been killed, her giving up her studies? The Resistance tactics?

8. The soldiers, orders, mines, shooting, keeping guard?

9. The realities of war, the futilities of war, the tragedies of war?