Résumés(1)
Actress Leila bursts into laughter on camera during the filming of a dramatic scene. Her improper behavior is a reaction to the recent death of her husband Koshrow, who accidentally fell down a flight of stairs. And it is Koshrow who serves as the film’s somewhat unreliable narrator, appearing in the movie even after his death. The couple’s complicated yet loving relationship unfolds as a delicately ironic detective story inside the elusive and, at the same time, obsessively arranged space- time of memory. Nevertheless, it reveals Koshrow’s secret life crisis and delves deep into the past, to an ancient house in the mountains. Director Ali Mosaffa has loosely adapted Tolstoy’s novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) and the James Joyce story The Dead (1914). His second picture develops the fragile, original narrative style he used to such good effect in his debut Portrait of a Lady Faraway (2005). And once again he cast his wife, renowned actress Leila Hatami, in the leading role. He himself took the part of the heroine’s husband. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)
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Critiques (1)
There’s fragmented narration everywhere you look, but also interesting work with hypotheses and flashbacks. From the perspective of a normal viewer, it’s a pleasant trip to Tehran and the Iranian countryside, quite surprising compared to the realities. The work with the subjects is quite fascinating, but the most interesting would probably be the film within the film.
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