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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A foreign film worth seeing, May 26, 2004
This review is from: The Silence [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Not for everyone, this is a blend of poetry, music and visuals, a breath-taking and beautiful movie. Very sensual, but not in an erotic way, the movie tells the story of a boy who experiences the world through sound and earns his living tuning musical instruments.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Frustrating but incredibly rewarding, November 20, 2010
Mohsen Makhmalbaf shot his 1998 film SOKOUT (The Silence) in Tajikistan, a setting as exotic for his native Iran as for an international audience. As the film opens, we meet the blind boy Khurshid (Tahmineh Normatova) and his mother living on the outskirts of the capital Dushanbe, now recovering from several years of civil war. Each morning their landlord knocks on their door to remind them that the rent is due soon, threatening them with eviction if they don't pay up. Khurshid is employed in a workshop, tuning musical instruments before they are sold. However, his master is increasingly fed up by his tardiness, for on the way to work Khurshid tends to follow any pretty sound he hears. It falls to the master's adopted daughter Nadareh to ensure that Khurshid makes it to work, but she is fascinated by his different perspective on the world around him.
This is a film of rich visuals. While Makhmalbaf does portray the poverty and failing infrastructure of Tajikistan, he powerfully draws out the varied colours of the country, as well as the immense ethnic and racial diversity of Transoxiana. One curious focus of SOKOUT is the ambiguous period between girlhood and young womanhood, as Nadareh and another female character of the same age are first introduced with extreme closeups of their lower faces, which make their exact age uncertain. Although still very much a child, Nadareh is shown aspiring to adulthood, drooping cherries over her ears like earrings and placing flower petals over her fingernails as makeshift nail polish.
Although memorable and often entertaining, SOKOUT falls short of greatness, for what its plot all means is not clear. There's no closure or resolution, and indeed by the end of the film, things are looking worse for Khorshid and his mother than ever. Perhaps I'm simply missing an allegorical meaning that Makhmalbaf's Iranian audience will pick up on immediately. A couple of interpretations seem likely, and there's a clear attack on religious fundamentalists when Nadareh runs away from a soldier scolding girls without head scarves. But the film remains a great enigma for me. Another flaw is that the use of amateur actors, while it generally makes for authenticity, seems a limitation whenever trained actors come on screen, such as Araz M. Shirmohamadi playing a Turkmen nomad.
Still, I do recommend this film very much. Many scenes will stay with you, and this is a glimpse into a part of the world little-known in the West. I've watched SOKOUT several times now, and even if I never succeed in getting it, making another attempt is always an enjoyable 70 minutes.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Frustrating but incredibly rewarding, November 20, 2010
This review is from: The Silence [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Mohsen Makhmalbaf shot his 1998 film SOKOUT (The Silence) in Tajikistan, a setting as exotic for his native Iran as for an international audience. As the film opens, we meet the blind boy Khurshid (Tahmineh Normatova) and his mother living on the outskirts of the capital Dushanbe, now recovering from several years of civil war. Each morning their landlord knocks on their door to remind them that the rent is due soon, threatening them with eviction if they don't pay up. Khurshid is employed in a workshop, tuning musical instruments before they are sold. However, his master is increasingly fed up by his tardiness, for on the way to work Khurshid tends to follow any pretty sound he hears. It falls to the master's adopted daughter Nadareh to ensure that Khurshid makes it to work, but she is fascinated by his different perspective on the world around him.
This is a film of rich visuals. While Makhmalbaf does portray the poverty and failing infrastructure of Tajikistan, he powerfully draws out the varied colours of the country, as well as the immense ethnic and racial diversity of Transoxiana. One curious focus of SOKOUT is the ambiguous period between girlhood and young womanhood, as Nadareh and another female character of the same age are first introduced with extreme closeups of their lower faces, which make their exact age uncertain. Although still very much a child, Nadareh is shown aspiring to adulthood, drooping cherries over her ears like earrings and placing flower petals over her fingernails as makeshift nail polish.
Although memorable and often entertaining, SOKOUT falls short of greatness, for what its plot all means is not clear. There's no closure or resolution, and indeed by the end of the film, things are looking worse for Khorshid and his mother than ever. Perhaps I'm simply missing an allegorical meaning that Makhmalbaf's Iranian audience will pick up on immediately. A couple of interpretations seem likely, and there's a clear attack on religious fundamentalists when Nadareh runs away from a soldier scolding girls without head scarves. But the film remains a great enigma for me. Another flaw is that the use of amateur actors, while it generally makes for authenticity, seems a limitation whenever trained actors come on screen, such as Araz M. Shirmohamadi playing a Turkmen nomad.
Still, I do recommend this film very much. Many scenes will stay with you, and this is a glimpse into a part of the world little-known in the West. I've watched SOKOUT several times now, and even if I never succeed in getting it, making another attempt is always an enjoyable 70 minutes.
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