MUSIC BOX

Iran, 2008, 113 minutes. Colour.

Music Box is a story set in contemporary Tehran, a focus on a young boy who has a terminal illness. The film also uses Muslim backgrounds of the afterlife, guardian angels, angels of death. While the treatment is completely realistic, this gives an anchoring to the supernatural themes.

The little boy is very good, his father being a doctor, putting his son to work in a pharmacy. He encounters another girl waiting for a transplant. He goes to hospital. He is also puzzled by a strange-looking man whom the audience has seen encountering people and their collapsing. It emerges that his mission is being the Angel of Death, getting people ready for their deaths, taking them away to another life.

The film explores the themes of death quite well, especially as they focus on the little boy, his doctor-father’s concern about him, attempts to save his life.

The film offers an opportunity for audiences to understand something of the religious perspectives of Islam as they apply to ordinary living, to dying.

1. The impact of the film? Life in Tehran? Familiarity or not for the audiences?

2. The presentation of the city, the pharmacy, homes, hospitals? The mountains outside Tehran? The streets? The realism? The musical score?

3. The title, the late introduction of the theme of the music box, the little boy and his bequest?

4. The focus on the boy, his life, age, his working in the pharmacy, kindness towards the customers, his mixing things up, the tolerance of the pharmacist? His father’s demands? His dead mother? The friendship with the terminally ill girl, getting her medicine? His encountering the Angel of Death, seeing him in the street, with the old man? His puzzle? At home with his grandfather? The bond with his grandfather? The grandfather’s note – and his being taken by the Angel of Death? The boy and his preparations? The encounter with the angel, the discussions, the meaning of his death, leaving his body behind, the grief for families, their consolation?

5. The Angel of Death, his being an underling, the phone calls and the tasks? Contemplating on the mountain? His coming into the shop, encountering the old man, taking him away? The grandfather and his death? The discussions with the boy? His explanations of his task, his being an agent? His continuing his work?

6. The background characters, the kindliness of the grandfather, life at home? The busy doctor and his work at the hospital? The patient, the transplants, encountering the patient’s family, their concern about the patient? Permission for transplants?

7. A satisfying human drama, emotions? The hospital background, transplants and patients, death? The film taking audiences to consider deeper levels of the meaning of life and death?