GOODBYE

Iran, 2011, 100 minutes, Colour.
Leyla Zareh.
Directed by Mohammed Rasoulof.

Goodbye is a portrait of a middle-aged woman and her actions in trying to arrange departure from Iran.

She has been a lawyer but her licence has been revoked because of her work on human rights cases. Her husband had been a journalist involved in what were considered subversive publications, and their being suppressed. He has moved to the south and is working on a building site, without any regular contact with his wife.

The complications of the woman’s life include her pregnancy, tests and interviews and the prospect of the child she is bearing having Downs Syndrome. She wants to continue with her legal cases for human rights but that is refused. She plans to leave the country and many of the sequences see her at the office, discussing passports, needing legal documents, issues about payments.

The film is grim in its picture of oppression of civil rights, the prospect of the woman not being able to leave the country – and the screenplay mirrors some of the experiences of the director in his wanting to leave the country and being imprisoned for his work.

1. An Iranian story? Characters? Setting? A character wanting to leave Iran?

2. The autobiographical experience of the director, wanting to leave the country, critique, imprisonment?

3. The Iranian city, the darker colours, interiors, sombre, exteriors? The home, offices? The streets? The musical score? The grimmer aspects of life?

4. The portrait of Noora? Age, experience? Her work as a human rights lawyer, her licence being revoked, her wanting to work on particular cases, the political difficulties? Her relationship with her husband, his absence from the film, his past editing the paper, subversive writing? His going to the south, on the building site, driving the crane? Irregular contract contact with his wife? Her pregnancy, the advice of the doctor, going to the friend of her husband, the sister as a doctor, the interviews, tests, ultrasound, the information about the embryo, the confirmation of Downs Syndrome? (The imaginative sequence with Noora lying on the bed and the young girl with Downs Syndrome lying there?) Going to the office, trying to get the documents, resistance? The application for the passport, the costs? Eventually getting the passport for herself and her husband? The harassment at home, the issue of the satellite disk and the removal of the disk and the remote? The search of the house, upsetting the book? Her mother’s visit, worrying about her daughter, going out to buy things, the meal, coming in as the room was being ransacked, sitting calmly watching the television?

5. The buildup to Noora getting her passport, contact with her husband, the taxi, her luggage, going to hotel, taking the room, hoping to leave the country from there?

6. The focus on Noora’s friends, advice, wariness about the politics? The lawyer and the discussion about cases? Noora’s mother? The people at the hotel?

7. The husband, his past career, the dangers, making contact with his wife, not leaving the country?

8. Sombre picture of human rights in Iran, political officials and security checks, opression and those who work for human rights?