WINNERS

UK, 2022, 85 minutes, Colour.

Reza Naji, Parsa Maghami, Hossein Abedini, Helia Mohammadkhani.

Directed by Hassan Nazer.

The cinema industry in Iran has, for decades, been outstanding, a succession of world-renowned directors, writers, producers, performers, presence at many festivals, many awards. This is the background to this entertaining film, made by Iranian-Scottish writer-director, our son knows there. He is from Aberdeen but has written this story about life in the run, a country village, bringing it to life, its Post Office, homes and television, school, children and the rubbish heap’s for collecting and selling plastic, all with the background of Uranian cinema.

This film could be called Oscar, or the Adventures of Oscar – that is, the Academy Award winning statuette, the statue awarded to Asgard variety for The Salesman, the best Foreign Language Film, 2017, and the director not going to Hollywood because of Donald Trump’s banning of travellers from Iran. Here it is being brought home by an assistant who inadvertently leaves it in the taxi, the taxi driver upset, taking it to a country Post Office, an assistant of 28 years borrowing it for photos and losing it in the desert, its being found by a young boy – and many unexpected consequences.

Many Iranian films focus on stories of children and this is very much in this vein, the excellent presence of the boy, Passer mug Army, poor, his mother rousing on him for his television and film watching, very knowledgeable about films, eager to see Cinema Paradiso, DVD supplied by his friend at the rubbish heap. In charge of the rubbish heap is an elderly man who turns out to be an actor (with the actor himself assuming a character but with reference to his winning the Silver Bear in Berlin, 2008, four colour.

The film has the light touch, some serious themes about actors, becoming victims of celebrity, wanting to retire, themes of children, school bullying, themes of poverty in the Uranian countryside.

The thought occurs that if a British version of the screenplay had been available in the 1950s, it would have been the making of a wonderful Ealing Studios comedy.

1. The writer-director, Iranians Scottish, British sensibilities, Iranian sensibilities, the combination, an Iranian story, filmed in Iran?
2. The scenes in Tehran, traffic, taxis, police? The contrast with the countryside, rocks, mountains, desert, ruins, the village, the rubbish heap, the post office, homes and television? Atmosphere, musical score?
3. The title, the Academy Awards, the film dedicated to Abbas Kierostami, Jafar Panahi, Majid Majidi, Asghar Farhadi? References to their films?
4. Iranians, love of cinema, their own cinema and its traditions, great names, influences? But love of international and American cinema? The posters? The references? And Cinema Paradiso?
5. The introduction to the theme, the taxi, the box with the Oscar, the woman getting out, leaving the package, the police moving the driver on? His concern, taking it to the post office, the postmistress and her recognising it, the plans for returning it? The assistant, 28 years, taking it, wrapping it, wanting to show his family, photos? Writing on his bike, the wedding ceremony, colourful, the truck breaking down, is having to take the desert route, losing the statue, his concern, returning, the police, the postmistress?
6. The introduction to Yahyah, at home, watching the movies, his mother’s concern, not sympathetic to the movies? The boy, his age, knowledge of films, borrowing them from Sabre, Cinema Paradiso? At school, his friendship with Leila, the big boys and the bullying, fights? The children gathering, the rubbish truck, the garbage heap, the bags of plastic, the weights, Nasser Khan, in charge, the dwarf helping him, Sabre helping? The weights, the payments?
7. Nasser Khan and his background, upset, the Oscar statuette, taking Yahyah aside, his keeping silence? The discussion with Sabre? The silver bear from Berlin? Treasuring it? His story about the pressure of acting, in the public eye, wanting to escape? Yet missing it, deciding to return, with his Silver Bear? He and sabre moving out? The drive to Teheran?
8. Yahyah, finding the statue, trying to sell it, the dealer, Leila wanting the doll, the dress for the statue and its modesty? The clashes with the children? Yahyah at home, the discovery of seeing Nasser Khan as an actor? Sworn to silence? Upset, throwing the statue away, recovering it? Defying his mother? The decision to return it to its owner?
9. The taxi ride, the taxi driver, echoes of Jafar pun he and his film? Discussions about film, the recognition of the Oscar statue, the conversation, Yahyah getting out? His goal?
10. Nasser and Sabre, the truck breaking down, yet their decision to go on and back to film?