DANCE IN THE DUST

Iran, 2002, 90 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Asghar Farhadi.

Dance in the Dust focuses on a young man, a migrant from near the Turkish border, who falls in love with a young woman he meets on a bus in Teheran. Very soon he is being pressured by his parents to divorce her because her mother was a prostitute. They are unwilling to go through, but the woman realises that this has to be done and he is to find the money for her marriage portion to restore to her. He gets a number of odd jobs in factories but eventually runs from the police because he cannot repay his debt. He hides away in a van of a lonely man who goes into the mountains to catch snakes. They clash in the mountains, but eventually when the young man is bitten by a snake, the older man takes him to hospital. In their discussions with each other, they each come to some understanding of their situation, especially the young man towards his wife. He reconciles with her and when he finds the van of the old man, he has vanished as has the photo of the love of his wife which he had kept in a box for many years.

The film gives an interesting portrait, especially of the two men, the generation gap, the emotional gap, but shows each man finding some kind of salvation.

1. The impact of the film? Iranian society? Marriage and divorce pressures? Work, money, debts? Possibilities of hope and reconciliation?

2. The city settings and their authenticity, the countryside, the desert, the mountains?

3. The focus on the young man, genial, a stranger in the city, in the bus, with the baby, the young woman, the marriage? At home, watching the Indian movie? The wife wanting to get a diploma? The suddenness of the pressure from his parents, the divorce? The judge and his being mystified? The lending of the money for the marriage portion? The young man and his friend, the various odd jobs, deliveries, cooking? The legal situation and his running away? Hiding in the van, the old man, their clashes, the old man's abandoning him, the young man being cold, hungry? His angers, fearing the old man was dead after seeing him sick? Breaking the window of the van? Tidying it up? His own attempts to catch a snake after disturbing the old man? Success, his being bitten? The option of his finger being cut off - and the flashback to his buying the ring? In the van, the finger packed with ice, the long journey, the hospital, the operation? His running away, going to his wife, the reconciliation? Going to the old man, finding the van, the photograph gone? His future and hope?

4. The wife, her mother being a prostitute, seeing them in the bus, the young man following them? The audience not knowing the facts until the end? Her willingness to have the divorce because of the situation? The reconciliation at the end on his return?

5. The old man, van, silent and surly, his reputation of having killed someone, the truth and his explaining it to the young man? His antagonism, the fights, his being sick? The snake market, the catching of the snakes, his skills? Disturbed by the young man? The stick and his beating him? The gradual understanding, the young man being bitten, deciding to take him to the hospital, wanting to find money for the payments? The discussions and his explanation about the young woman that he loved, the man that he killed? His disappearance with the photo, the possibility of hope?

6. A portrait of Iranian society, people at the fringes? Ordinary life, the workplaces, the pressures on people?

7. Divorce in Iranian society, the pressures, the judges, the prevalence? An insight into the Iranian people

8. The snake market, the catching of the snakes, his skills? Disturbed by the young man? The stick and his beating him? The gradual understanding, the young man being bitten, deciding to take him to the hospital, wanting to find money for the payments? The discussions and his explanation about the young woman that he loved, the man that he killed? His disappearance with the photo, the possibility of hope?

9. A portrait of Iranian society, people at the fringes? Ordinary life, the workplaces, the pressures on people?

10. Divorce in Iranian society, the pressures, the judges, the prevalence? An insight into the Iranian people