SAF- HAYE VELGARD (STRAY DOGS)

Iran, 2004, 90 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Marzieh Makmahlbaf.

A powerful film of Afghanistan and the Taliban by Marzieh Makmahlbaf (The Day I Became a Woman), themes already explored by her husband Moysan Makbahlbaf in Kandahar and her daughter, Samira, in At Five in the Afternoon. Her other daughter, Hana, made a documentary on the making of At Five in the Afternoon and then made Buddha Collapsed out of Shame.

1.Iranian films, their focus on political situations, the specialty with children? The Makmalbhaf family? Their skills, the family working together, the daughter helping her mother with the direction in this film?

2.The Afghan background, the Taliban experience, the coming of the Russians, the Americans, the planes flying overhead, the ruins of the town, the inhabitants trying to cope?

3.The town itself, the fringes and the garbage dumps, the prisons, shops and markets, the dogfight, the cinema?

4.The title, the image of the dogs, a metaphor for the children? The boys pursuing the little dog with fire sticks? The boy and his sister rescuing the dog, the dog not eating, the cuteness of the dog? His accompanying them everywhere? The little girl trying to get him to eat, the stealing of the cow’s head and his not eating? The dog as human’s best friend exemplified here?

5.The scenes from de Sica’s Bicycle Thieves, the images of the boy and his father, their desperation, stealing the bike, being caught? The children hearing from the ticket seller the theme, going in, watching, getting their own idea, the boy imitating the film?

6.The portrait of the brother and sister, their ages, collecting the wood and the scraps, exchanging for bread, selling the wood, the wood for the fire in the prison? The freezing prison? Their strength of character, going to see their mother, in the cell with her? Her telling them the story, the message for their father, his being Taliban, beating their mother, disappearing for five years, their thinking he was dead? Her remarriage, the second husband’s death, telling them to say that he did not beat her as much? Their dependence for livelihood on the father? The visits, together, each going in separately? The audience never seeing the father? Rehearsing their lines, the aftermath? His being moved? The cow’s head, the other dogs coming, the build-up to the dogfight? The characters of the children, the focus on them, their emotions?

7.The portrait of the mother, the hard life, the husbands, the brutality, her being in prison, trying to care for her children? The other prisoners – especially the mother with the crying baby and its being so cold? The generosity of a prisoner giving wood?

8.The guards, their letting the children in, wary about the dog? The final arrest?

9.The shopkeeper, the little girl buying the trinket, putting it on the dog? Their wanting to get beads for their father – especially those which were most efficacious?

10.The cinema, the screening of Bicycle Thieves? The humour of the ticket seller saying it was art house and boring, going to his brother’s cinema to see an action film after the boring film was over? The tribute to de Sica and Italian realism? The portrait of the two children in the de Sica vein?

11.The stealing of the bicycle, the arrest, the little girl running after her brother, wanting to be arrested? Their previous attempts, stealing the woman’s bag, wanting to get into prison to be with their mother? The finale with the boy taken to a different prison? Separated from his sister?