BUTTERFLY IN THE WIND

Iran, 2004, 95 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Abbas Rafei.

Butterfly in the Wind starts promisingly as a woman is released from prison after ten years. She goes on a quest, quite desperately, into the deserts of Iran to search for her daughter who has been taken by her husband. He had betrayed her at the airport and she had been imprisoned for drug-smuggling.

She meets a strange character in the desert who refuses to help, even though he knows where the husband is. It emerges that the husband has been responsible for the death by fire of his wife and child. With the insistence of the woman, they travel into the desert. Here the film becomes rather melodramatic (and not good on continuity or realism). There is a vivid sandstorm and they are buried under it. Their reaction, their getting out of the car are quite believable but the car looks and sounds in too good condition afterwards. They continued lost, have to walk, come across a tribe riding camels and are given water which they then put in the car and finally arrive at the village. The confrontation with the husband (after some flashbacks) is even more melodramatic and the ending rather appalling as the wife, who had pushed her husband so that he would not shoot the man who helped her, is sentenced to seven years' jail. The film perpetuates the perspective that women are more unfairly treated in Iranian criminal law.

1. Interesting melodrama? Themes of prison, quests, family, drugs, prison?

2. The city locations, the desert locations, the towns, the settlements, the isolation, the mountains? The town by the sea? The musical score?

3. The title, the reference to Ayda? Fragile, growing strong in prison, in the winds of chance?

4. Ayda's story: the flashbacks, her marriage, teenage, falling in love, her daughter? Her husband framing her at the airport and disappearing? Taking the daughter? Her ten years in jail? Toughening, the release? Seeking out people who knew where her husband was, travelling to the desert town, finding the truck driver, going with him, arriving in the settlement, finding her husband's friend? Her insistence, perseverance? Her getting a lift, the driver assaulting her, the friend taking her to the hospital? Her return, his final change of heart? Going in the car, the sandstorm, her being buried alive, but yet wanting to see her daughter? The friend's ability to get them out of the car? In the desert, driving, being lost, stranded? The group on camels? Finally getting to the town, the family not wanting her to find out where her daughter was, her husband meeting her on the beach, the confrontation, his threatening to shoot her friend? Her being charged with manslaughter rather than murder, return to prison?

5. The friend, his past story about his wife and daughter being killed in the flames, Ayda's husband being the cause? His exile, unkempt appearance, work in isolation, his house? His refusing to give Ayda the information, his reaction to her perseverance, driving her to the hospital after the assault? Finally giving in, the haircut and the transformation? Driving, the sandstorm, his ingenuity in getting them out? Driving, running out of water, walking, the camels? Getting to the town, his realising that Ayda had been set up, getting the daughter, taking her to the beach, the threat?

6. Ayda's husband, wealthy, drug dealing? Disappearing with the daughter? His new life, the final confrontation, Ayda pushing him and his death? Her daughter, in the town, locked in, getting out and going to the beach? Her waiting for her mother?

7. The background of Iran in the 90s, the prevalence of drug dealing? Criminals? Women in prison? The human elements of the story? Melodramatic?