BE AHESTIGI.../ GRADUALLY

Iran, 2005, 80 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Maziar Miri.

Successful in its native Iran, this is a brief feature with great feeling. On the surface, it is a story of a railway tracks worker who returns to the city to find his wife who suffers from mental problems and has disappeared. People are not helpful in helping him search, often hostile. For the first part of the film, we understand the husband, his feelings, his frustrations, his belief that his wife is dead, his masculine shame about her behaviour.

But, she is not dead. The second part of the film shows the wife’s perspective on what has happened and what she has done. Women in Iran experience many difficulties, especially in their status in general and their status with their husbands. Punitive legal measures can victimise the women.

The husband does what he thinks is right concerning his wife and the law. However, he has to respect his wife, listen to her experiences. The challenge is for forgiveness and reconciliation.

The Tehran setting is wintry, sometimes dark. We are led, like the husband, to a pilgrimage city and beyond our expectations of the wife and what she has done. The audience, too, has to learn to listen and respect.