TRIPLE CHRONICLES

Iran, 2004, 120 minutes, Colour.
First episode: Little Dreams - Directed by Parviz Sheikh-Tadi?.
Second episode: God's Joke - Directed by Abdol Hassan Barzideh.
Third episode: Mother Gilaneh - Directed by Rakhshan Bani-Etemad?.

Triple Chronicles is a film critical of war. It comprises three short stories, each about 35 minutes long. They each have different directors.

The first episode, Little Dreams, is a fantasy, a critique of war, especially developing an attitude towards war and warmongering in the minds of children. A man locks up his shop, is suddenly found to be in an artificial court, presided over by a long-haired judge, defended by a large man, the image of himself. As the proceedings go on, it emerges that as a child he coveted a plane that a toyshop seller would not allow him to buy. His tantrums at home drive his father and mother berserk and they attempt to buy the plane. As he grows up, he becomes a cowardly soldier, involved in all the action of war but in fact also hiding and wanting to be transferred to a distant post. Into this fantasy are put scenes of dictators like Hitler and Mussolini, war sequences of World War II as well as of the Iraq war. Finally, the judge is found to be another version of the man on trial - and we then see him locking his shop and dying.

1. The film's stance against war, the attitudes of children towards war toys?

2. The fantasy of the court, the make-up and design, the three versions of the central character? The witnesses hidden in shadow until spot-lit, especially the victims of chemical warfare in the Iraq war? The shop itself, its lightness, brightness and the toys? Home, the contrast with the war setting, the explosions, the men in the tank? An overall coverage of war and its implications?

3. The character of the central man, his denial of everything, his protest against the accusations, his claim that all children love war toys? The wilful child, with his friend, at the shop window, his demands to buy the plane, his fantasy of the shop burning down, of killing the shop owner? At home with his family, the later testimony of his older sister against him? In war, cowardly? Going into the town, putting on the gas mask? Surveying the dead, more exhilarated by the action of war than mourning the dead? His ageing, getting the toy shop and becoming the proprietor, the photo of the previous owner on the door? His living his life selling war toys? His death?

4. The film's theme of children's imaginations being corrupted and geared towards war? Culpability for war action and war crimes on such people as the toy shop owner?

Second episode: God's Joke

1. The situation of the war, the isolated town, the young men on the lookout, the approach of the tanks? The town itself, the home, the garden? The street with the ambulance? An authentic setting for war?

2. The focus on the characters, the man on the lookout, seeing the truck, directing his brother and the other soldier to fire the mortars and destroy the truck? Cycling home? His worry about the furniture? The discussions about war, Islam, prayer, on which side God was working? The brother and his devout nature?

3. The friend, the issue of the furniture, their working together in the war? The soldiers' (soldier's) dreams? Having set up the grenade, its destroying the other soldier? The game of the soldier pretending to hang himself, the women mourning, his revelation of the truth?

4. The concern about the furniture, the setting up of the grenade, the imagination of who was killed by it, the dreams? At the lookout, missing the invasion? Cycling home, the phone call reassuring him that his brother was alive? The dead man - and the ambulance truck taking away the furniture? The significance of the title?

Third episode: Mother Gilaneh

1. The date of the action, March 20, 2003? The device of having all the action on one significant day? In the Iranian mountains? The victim of the war against Iraq and his long illness, his being cared for by his mother? The people visiting, passing by, a cross-section of Iran?

2. The information about President Bush's decision, the beginning of the invasion of Iraq, the television coverage throughout the day? The attitudes of the Iranians towards the invasion, towards the Americans, towards the past enemy, the Iraqis?

3. The young man, his epileptic fit, his mother caring for him? The laborious lifting him, washing him, feeding him, washing his clothes? Getting him out of bed, dressing him, sitting him in the chair? Helping him with his exercises? The young man, his experience of the war, the long illness? Ringing the bell in anxiety? The visit of the doctor and his reassurance, his wanting to be sent away to hospital? The visit of the girl with her children, his playing with the children, the girl not able to face him? Their past? Their waiting for his sister to turn up?

4. The character of the mother, the dramatic playing of the mother by a younger actress, her overplaying? Emotion? Her age, experience, weariness in looking after her son, her continually reassuring him? The hard work? Her encounter with people passing by, the young woman and the children, her going into the town and to the telephone exchange to ring the hospital, the doctor being away? The people buying cigarettes, the squabbling family, the young men? The woman coming back with the scarf? Her waiting for her daughter to come? Her working, cooking, feeding her son, washing and dressing him, the exercises? Her working on the roof when the doctor came? Her fall from the ladder? The anxiety of her son? Keeping going?

5. The range of people representing Iran on that day in 2003? The young woman and her children, the possibility of her having married the man, the outbreak of the war and his illness? The children? The squabbling family and changing the tyre? The phone calls and making money out of the invasion? The young men and their chatter, the speculation about the price of cigarettes and the war? The cars passing by? The doctor, his having only one arm, his care for the mother, treatment of the son, care?

6. The impact of understanding an aspect of life in Iran in the mountains in one day, putting it in the setting of the outbreak of the Iraq war? The comment on war?