I am a great fan of Iranian films, and I have many titles in my collection. They are usually low budget, but very creative and sensitive movies. However, I found "Bad Ma Ra Khahad Bord" very boring and overrated. I do not know whether today it was not the right day for me to watch it, if I was too tired, or if I missed the point, but I did not like the story. For Western viewers like me, it is very interesting to see this total different culture of an ancient people, the geography of their country, their costumes and mainly their great concern with education, presented in most of the Iranian movies. Further, Abbas Kiarostami is a recognized and awarded director. And in accordance with the cover of the VHS, this movie awarded the Venice Festival in the category Best Film. But all of these elements together are not necessary or sufficient to make me like this movie. I have some friends of mine that will certainly criticize my review, but this is my honest opinion. "Bad Ma Ra Khahad Bord" is interesting while shows a different culture and geography, but also too long and tedious. Anyway, I intend to see it again in a near future in a Saturday or Sunday afternoon to reevaluate my present opinion. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Vento Nos Levará" ("The Wind Will Carry Us")

An occasional motif in cinema is the arrival of a person from a big city in a small town. It's gotten played for laughs (My Cousin Vinny) and gotten used for terror (The Birds). But Abbas Kiarostami's "Bād mā rā khāhad bord" ("The Wind Will Carry Us" in English) is probably the first instance where it's been philosophical. The movie focuses on some journalists who go to a Kurdish village to document the rituals anticipating the death of an elderly woman, only to see the woman survive. One of the journalists proceeds to meander through the village, his cell phone remaining the only link to the outside world. It's as though the stay in this village is the first time that he's had a chance to simply experience life.

So far I've liked every Kiarostami movie that I've seen, and that includes this one. It's basically a focus on our understanding of life (the urban concept of it vs. the rural concept of it). Abbas Kiarostami, like Akira Kurosawa and Martin Scorsese, is someone whose work revolutionized cinema. It's too bad that he died last year (one of the many notable people who left us during the atrocity that was 2016).

This Iranian/Persian film used to feature in one of the versions of the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I have always said I will try any and all film that have been and will be in it, directed by Abbas Kiarostami (Close-Up, Taste of Cherry). Basically in the hills of Kurdistan, an unnamed city Engineer (Behzad Dorani) and his two two (unseen) assistants are searching for a small village in the mountains. They arrive and are greeted by a young boy who shows them a place for them to stay and guides the engineer to the home of an (unseen) elderly dying woman. It is unclear to the people why the engineer and his men are there, some locals think he he wants to the purchase the land when the old woman dies, others think he could be an archaeologist searching for rare artefacts. Meanwhile the engineer spends time exploring the village and encountering the people who live there, most are women, the men are at jobs that occupy them day and night for several months of the year. The engineer also stays in touch with the boy, who keeps an eye on the old woman's health, while also doing his schoolwork, working on his family's farm, and doing household chores for his mother. The engineer gets a few calls on his cellular phone, he is required to drive to a graveyard to receive the calls, most however are wrong numbers, while doing so he encounters an (unseen) gravedigger and a girl who milks cows kept in a basement. Over time the engineer has done everything he can to fit into the community, while sticking around for his supposed relative, and his attitudes to things change by the time he is ready to leave. There is only one character to truly focus on throughout the whole film, leaving the viewer to speculate about withheld information, it a static, emotionally detached and subtle celebration of the dignity of labour, I am honest in saying I could not follow any real story, I just liked the leading character and the vibrant backgrounds, overall an interesting enough drama. Good!