Maybe it could have gone a bit further narratively, but it's hard not to finish this film with the feeling that we've witnessed a small great film.
It's a movie quite contained in its social and family spectrum, but it's a film about departures, farewells, and even wakes, delivering its message in an exemplary way, through different perspectives. Considering it's just "a journey," I find it to be a remarkably complete work in how it presents striking differences in all its acts and in the way this journey is also perceived, with belief, but also with many doubts and uncertainties.
The four actors are just perfect and there are some perfect shots, especially in its second half when it leaves behind some visual conventions and surprises us, whether showing distant farewells as observers in an incredible wide shot or how it portrays "that" intergalactic trip. Another of the film's highlights is how it uses music in an exemplary and well-suited manner to each moment, evoking feelings of nostalgia even for those who know little or nothing about Iranian reality before and after the revolution. Great directorial debut!
It's a movie quite contained in its social and family spectrum, but it's a film about departures, farewells, and even wakes, delivering its message in an exemplary way, through different perspectives. Considering it's just "a journey," I find it to be a remarkably complete work in how it presents striking differences in all its acts and in the way this journey is also perceived, with belief, but also with many doubts and uncertainties.
The four actors are just perfect and there are some perfect shots, especially in its second half when it leaves behind some visual conventions and surprises us, whether showing distant farewells as observers in an incredible wide shot or how it portrays "that" intergalactic trip. Another of the film's highlights is how it uses music in an exemplary and well-suited manner to each moment, evoking feelings of nostalgia even for those who know little or nothing about Iranian reality before and after the revolution. Great directorial debut!