SWEET AGONY

Iran, 1999, 89 minutes, Colour.
Reza Davoudnejad, Mona Davoudnejad.
Directed by Alireza Davourdnejad.

Sweet Agony is a film designed for family viewing. It is narrated by a young teenager who is part of an extended family in a neighbourhood in Teheran. The opening shows him and the family agreeing to be in the film and a discussion about the effect of the film on helping people to understand and to be better.

The title is an echo of Romeo and Juliet's 'Parting is such sweet sorrow'. The film is something of a variation on the Romeo and Juliet theme. The young boy, Razar, and Mona, his neighbour, have been declared engaged in a joking way when they were very small, by the members of both families. The film shows the complexities of the families, deaths, absences. It also shows Razar as very devoted to his grandmother and unable to speak with his father. Mona is under the influence of her uncles and grandmother. The film shows a great amount of detail of life in an Iranian home, in the neighbourhood, at school. Another central character is a little boy who is friendly with both Razar and Mona and was asked by the grandmothers to spy on them and report back what they are talking about.

There are a great number of very emotional scenes, highly intense by western standards, where people shout at one another - because they love them. This is particularly the case with Iranian grandmothers. The film shows the various frustrations - similar to those in most cultures.