The Mirror
by Jafar Panahi
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Kazem Mojdehi, M. Shirzad, Mina Mohammad Khani, Naser Omuni, T. SamadpourDirector: Jafar Panahi
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Arabic (Original Language); Persian (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-04-05
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Kino Video
Movie Reviews of The Mirror
Movie Review: A gem within the hustle and bustle of the city
Summary: 4 Stars
I will always remember the most memorable scene in the movie Love Actually. It is a scene that was omitted from the film, but shown in the dvd extra: a scene where a photograph of African tribal farmers working in the fields comes to life. A man and a woman is working, but they look at each other with a sparkle in their eyes. The director(?) explains something to the effect that he wanted to show people outside a culture that all the things they (meaning Westerners), see in their media are not the full breadth of a daily existence, that love, for example, exists.
There's a beautiful scene in The Mirror, where the little girl sits on a public bus, and she sees a man and a woman, separated by gender lines according to public transportation rules. In the gorgeous late afternoon light and with street musicians playing in the aisle, they look at each other with stolen glances of love and adoration.
For those who are not familiar with the available Iranian films in this country (or those who don't care to explore), such scenes would not exist in their imagination. Yet I do think it's our great fortune that Jafar Panahi is able to show a wondrous humanity that is often absent in the American consciousness of Iranian people.
The film is shot at a child's eye level, which means we see the little girl literally sandwiched between layers upon layers of bustling Tehranian traffic. I found myself holding to the edge of my seat oftentimes throughout the movie, literally gritting my teeth at how close she comes to moving cars. Of course, photographers will know this is created by the foreshortening in a telephoto lens, but it does expertly capture the density of the city.
For me, the midway interruption (the child stops agreeing to be filmed and walks off the set) is really a deconstruction of the customs and laws women in Iran have to subscribe to. The completion of the film is the individual obligation a woman has to maintain and abide by cultural rules. The little girl's rejection of the film, the film crew, and subsequently, one person after another (mostly men) could be read as an all-out rebellion against authority.
Mina Mohammad Khani sustains the biggest pout of the century throughout the length of the film. If for nothing else, the film is a good way see a bit of Iran. This film precedes Panahi's masterpiece, The Circle.
Summary of The Mirror
When a young girl becomes lost in the hustle and bustle of Tehran, her journey turns into a dazzling exercise on the nature of film itself. In this ingenious and daringly original feature, world renounced director Jafar Panahi (The White Balloon, Crimson Gold) has wrapped a blunt political critique inside the layers of a deceptively simple film.Art House & International DVD Video
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