The most remarkable thing about this Berlin Silver Bear directing (Asghar Farhadi) winner is that despite all the suspense and tension, what it is about is so ordinary daily life that it could easily happen to anybody, anywhere. What is gripping is the way the story is told through a volatile camera and how the underlying human characters and emotions are explored.
The follow recap of events up to the first 45 minutes of this 2-hour film is technically not a spoiler, as I wouldn't even reveal details of the major incident that is the crucial turning point. And yet, it is a spoiler in the sense that some of the background only come out in the second half of the film, simply through dialogue of the character, that is, no convoluted flash back or time scramble which apparently still hasn't gone out of fashion in Hollywood.
11 people (4 man, 4 women, 3 kids) from Tehran drives to a seaside (the Caspian) resort for a 3-day holiday. There is however a hidden agenda. Seven of the adults are close friends 2 couple, brother-and-sister pair and a single guy Ahmad (Shahab Hosseini) who just got divorced. The wife of one of the couples, Sepideh (Golshifteh Farahani), invites a pretty young woman along in the last minute, a match-making gambit for the divorced friend. Elly (Taraneh Alidousti) the attractive outsider is Sepideh's kid's teacher at the nursery school. It turns out that Sepideh doesn't even know her last name. What Sepideh does know though, is that Elly is engaged, but willing to come along because she is trying to get out of the relationship with her fiancé (Saber Abar). This Sepideh hides from everybody. In the first 45 minutes, the audience follows with mild interest the progress of this modern, middle-class group's seaside vacation and gets to gradually recognize some of the character, obvious starting with Elly and Ahmad. But something happens, switching the tone of the film quite abruptly, and the audience follows the film with gripping attention to the end.
I must re-emphasize that there is no convoluted plots, credibility-stretching events and the likes of such that flood Hollywood movies. Everything that happens, as well as the people's reaction, is something that you and I can relate easily to our ordinary experience. The power of the film is derived from the way in which some of the facts unfold, to the audience as well as to the characters in the film. This is drama, suspense and tension in real life.
The acting is excellent although the cast is unknown, with the exception of Golshifteh Farahani who acted opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in "Body of lies" (2008) as the charming nurse his characters falls in love with. The Iran depicted in this film is modern except for the headscarf, the women are no different from what you'll find in any big city in the Western society. People's emotions and reaction to event and situations are quite universal. The human nature probed in this film, therefore, can be easily empathized with.
The follow recap of events up to the first 45 minutes of this 2-hour film is technically not a spoiler, as I wouldn't even reveal details of the major incident that is the crucial turning point. And yet, it is a spoiler in the sense that some of the background only come out in the second half of the film, simply through dialogue of the character, that is, no convoluted flash back or time scramble which apparently still hasn't gone out of fashion in Hollywood.
11 people (4 man, 4 women, 3 kids) from Tehran drives to a seaside (the Caspian) resort for a 3-day holiday. There is however a hidden agenda. Seven of the adults are close friends 2 couple, brother-and-sister pair and a single guy Ahmad (Shahab Hosseini) who just got divorced. The wife of one of the couples, Sepideh (Golshifteh Farahani), invites a pretty young woman along in the last minute, a match-making gambit for the divorced friend. Elly (Taraneh Alidousti) the attractive outsider is Sepideh's kid's teacher at the nursery school. It turns out that Sepideh doesn't even know her last name. What Sepideh does know though, is that Elly is engaged, but willing to come along because she is trying to get out of the relationship with her fiancé (Saber Abar). This Sepideh hides from everybody. In the first 45 minutes, the audience follows with mild interest the progress of this modern, middle-class group's seaside vacation and gets to gradually recognize some of the character, obvious starting with Elly and Ahmad. But something happens, switching the tone of the film quite abruptly, and the audience follows the film with gripping attention to the end.
I must re-emphasize that there is no convoluted plots, credibility-stretching events and the likes of such that flood Hollywood movies. Everything that happens, as well as the people's reaction, is something that you and I can relate easily to our ordinary experience. The power of the film is derived from the way in which some of the facts unfold, to the audience as well as to the characters in the film. This is drama, suspense and tension in real life.
The acting is excellent although the cast is unknown, with the exception of Golshifteh Farahani who acted opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in "Body of lies" (2008) as the charming nurse his characters falls in love with. The Iran depicted in this film is modern except for the headscarf, the women are no different from what you'll find in any big city in the Western society. People's emotions and reaction to event and situations are quite universal. The human nature probed in this film, therefore, can be easily empathized with.