Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Thus far, Jafar Panai's The White Balloon (1995) has been the most successful Iranian film in the American market, even out-performing some very strong films directed by Abbas Kiarostami, Panahi's mentor. The story of this film has a straightforward simplicity that reminds one of De Sica's The Bicycle Thief, but the style is more minimalism than realism, reminding me in that respect of the French/Vietnamese film The Scent of Green Papaya.

Historical Background: Jafar Panahi was born in Mianeh, Iran on July 11th, 1960. As a child, he attended film screenings at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (now called Kanun, for short) that was begun by the Shah's wife during the late sixties. The film unit of the Institute was started by Abbas Kiarostami, one of Iran's foremost filmmakers (see Taste of Cherry). Kiarostami has produced most of his films through the institute. Some are children's films but some are documentaries or dramas that merely feature children. Panahi developed an interest in cinema and made a few shorts and documentaries for Iranian television between 1988 and 1992. Panahi then became a Kiarostami protégé by the expedient of simply phoning him and asking permission to observe the filming of Through the Olive Trees (1994). He so impressed the master that he was taken on as an assistant director. During the filming of Through the Olive Trees, the two men had a bit of a drive each day to the filming location and Panahi related to Kiarostami the outline of a plot that he had in mind for The White Balloon. Kiarostami then dictated a rough script for the film into a tape recorder over the course of several of these trips and later refined the transcribed results. Thus, Kiarostami was the scriptwriter for the film and it clearly shows the older man's influence. Nevertheless, Panahi imbued the film with his own stylistic sensitivity, drawn partly from his experience with documentaries.

The film was the official entry from Iran for the Foreign Film category at the Oscars in 1995, though it didn't make it into the set of five nominees. When the U.S. Congress passed a bill funding covert operations against Iran that year, the Iranian authorities tried to have their nomination withdrawn in protest. The Academy refused. Later, when The White Balloon received a limited theatrical release in the U.S., Panahi was prohibited from leaving Iran to participate in the publicity tour that had already been planned.

After his second film, The Mirror, Panahi's next film, The Circle (2000), was his first with a strong political message and earned him both international attention and attention of another sort from the Iranian government. That film was also a significant step forward in Panahi's filmmaking skill. Panahi will no longer visit America because he has been badly treated by customs official on those occasions when he did come. He was detained for twelve hours, on one occasion, while merely changing planes in New York City during a trip from Iran to South America, and shackled to a bench.

The Story: On the surface, the plot couldn't be any more simple. It concerns a seven year-old Iranian girl who very much wants to purchase one of the plump goldfish with four fins that she has seen at a shop in town, which will cost 100 tomans. With the aid of her brother, she finally wheedles the money from her mother, who is down to her last 500-toman note. On the way to the goldfish shop, the little girl loses the money not once, but twice, first to a snake-charming dervish and later to a grate-covered sewer. The rest of the film relates her persistent efforts to recover the lost note. That's about it – on the surface. It's what Pahahi does with this minimal plot that makes The White Balloon a remarkable first feature film.

The entire story is told from the perspective of the seven year-old Razieh, played endearingly and effectively by Aida Mohammadkhani. Razieh has both the human warmth and stubborn single-mindedness that only a seven year-old can possess, as many a parent can attest. As the film opens, Razieh is following as her mother (Fereshteh Sadr Orfani) conducts her last minute shopping before the beginning of the Iranian New Year holiday, which last two weeks. The New Year in Iran corresponds to the first day of spring. All of the shops will soon close, so there is a lot of last minute hustle and bustle in town. Razieh's mother is a little put out that Razieh is not following as closely as she should, especially when they walk past the alley where the adult men have gathered around a snake charmer. This is not a fit place for grown women much less a little girl, but Razieh has her curiosity. When mother and daughter arrive home, Razieh (and we) remain in the courtyard. Though we occasionally hear her father's voice emanating from their house, we never meet him and are never invited into the home.

Razieh is obsessed with the desire to purchase a goldfish that she saw in a shop in town – one that is fancier than the many they already have in the little pool in their courtyard. Goldfish are a traditional decoration associated with the celebration of the New Year for Iranians, so there is special significance to her desire. Razieh does her best to beg money from her mother but is unsuccessful until her brother, Ali (Mohsen Kafili), comes home. He's having his own problems this day, having been sent to the market to buy shampoo for his father but returning with soap instead. Ali thinks his sister's desire for another goldfish rather silly but takes an interest in helping her in exchange for her blue balloon. Ali somehow coaxes his mother into giving him her 500-toman note. He promises to purchase the goldfish and return with the change. Back in the courtyard, however, Razieh grabs the note and heads off to the goldfish shop, by herself, which is entirely in violation of her mother's sensible protective policies.

Now out in the big people's world, on her own for the first time, Razieh loses no time in stopping by the forbidden domain of the snake charmers. As she later explains, "I wanted to see what was not good for me." The snake charmers are trying to coax donations from the crowd that has gathered, promising to reveal a snake that has been kept carefully hidden in its case. The sneaky dervish quickly seizes Razieh's 500-toman note, pretending that she had offered it as a contribution. When Razieh bravely demands her money back, he taunts her by wrapping the note around one of the snakes and inviting her to reclaim it. Razieh is brave – but not that brave! Finally, the older snake charmer takes pity on her and returns the money.

Razieh arrives at the goldfish shop, only to make two equally distressing discoveries. The goldfish that she wants costs 200 tomans; 100 tomans will only buy one of the smaller ones ("skinny" ones is Razieh's word for them). Worse, she has lost her 500-toman note altogether. The pet shop owner (Asghar Barzegar) advises her to retrace her steps and she will probably find where she dropped the note. Razieh asks the man to promise not to sell the fish before she can return with her money and she leaves her goldfish bowl in his shop. An old lady (Anna Borkowska) notices Razieh's distress and offers to help her return the way she came. They finally spot the 500-toman note hanging precariously on a grate covering a sewer, but as Razieh goes to grab it, it falls in and out of reach. She can see it but can't recover it.

Razieh attempts to enlist the help of the owner of the nearest open shop – a tailor (Mohammed Bakhtiar) – but the proprietor is in a heated discussion with a customer who is demanding that the collar on the new shirt he has ordered be altered because his head is small. The argument is so heated that Razieh can't get the man's attention for more than a few seconds at a time. The note could be reached from the cellar of the adjacent shop, but, as it turns out, that shop is owned by another businessman altogether and he has already closed up for the holidays. The shop owner suggests that Razieh come back in two weeks when the other shop owner returns. Razieh can't imagine either giving up her intention of purchasing the goldfish or returning home without any of the money.

Razieh's brother comes looking for her. He has a bruise on his face, which we can only surmise resulted from a whack by his mother (or father) when they learned that he had let Razieh go into town by herself. He assesses the problem of extracting the note from the sewer but is at a loss for a solution. He experiments with the rod that the nearby shop owner is using to close up his shutters, but the hook turns the wrong way.

Ali leaves for a while to make sure that the man at the goldfish shop doesn't sell Razieh's goldfish. While he is gone, Razieh is approached by a friendly soldier (Mohammad Shahani), who tries to make small talk with her and offers her some of his sunflower seeds and pastries. Razieh is torn between the man's friendliness and recollection of her mother's admonitions against talking with strangers. The man tells her about his own two sisters, one a bit older than Razieh and the other a bit younger. Razieh reasons that she may not be a stranger to him, since he has sisters about her age, but he is still a stranger to her because he is much older than Ali!

Ali returns and devises a plan. They'll need a stick of some sort and some chewing gum. He tries to commandeer a man's umbrella, but is shooed away. He spots an Afghan boy (Aliasghar Smadi) selling balloons at the end of the block and runs down and seizes the group of balloons, which are attached to a stick. The Afghan boy quite naturally takes exception and they scuffle a bit, but after Ali explains their dilemma, the boy decides to help out. Ali finds a man selling gum and comes back with a piece. The threesome divide it up and engage in an impromptu chewing contest. With the gum on the end of the balloon stick and after several tries, they are able to extract the 500-toman note. Razieh and Ali race off to the goldfish shop but the camera remains stationary, riveted on the Afghan boy, now sitting alone on the grate, with his one unsold white balloon.

Themes: The White Balloon is an exploration of the nature of childhood and the view of the adult world from a child's perspective. Through Razieh's fresh and innocent gaze, we come away with a whole new understanding of the absurdity of our busy, and sometimes sordid, adult activities. In The White Balloon, the trials and tribulations of childhood take on fresh importance while the travails of the adult world suddenly seem less consequential.

Production Values: Like all of the other Iranian films I've seen (and many international films in general), The White Balloon has a much more leisurely pace to it than most of Hollywood's fare. The entire story takes place in real time, which we are keenly aware of as viewers because the radio broadcasts periodically announce how many minutes remain until the beginning of the New Year – much like a Times Square countdown. It's a beautiful script that simultaneously provides viewers with a glimpse into the world of a seven year-old little girl and, for Westerns, a glimpse into the lives of ordinary people in a Middle Eastern country. Since the film was made with non-actors, this is a genuine depiction, to a significant extent, of the people of Tehran. Panahi presents us with the kinds of drama that occupy the lives of children rather than those of the adult world.

Panahi does a magnificent job of shrinking everything in his filming technique down to a size matching the small world of his characters. The story takes place entirely within a small number of sets, including the courtyard of Razieh's home and a few city streets. By physically constraining the territory in which the film was shot, we get a sense of the limited size of a child's physical world. The minimalism of the cinematography nicely complements the minimalist script and the minimalist timeframe. The film thus never strays from a child's perspective.

The greatest strengths of the film are the performances of the two principles, but most especially Aida Mohammadkhani as Razieh. Mohsen Kalifi is very effective as well, as Ali, providing most of the comedic nuances of the film. It is to Panahi's credit that he was able to extract such natural and delightful performances from his young performers. One of Panahi's tactics is to refrain from divulging the story's overall plotline to any of his performers, so that their actions in each scene will be as natural and spontaneous as possible.

Bottom-Line: The White Balloon won substantial international recognition, including co-winner of the International Critics' Prize, the Camera d'Or, and the Prix Cicae at Cannes. It was the 1996 pick of the New York Film Critics' Circle as Best Foreign Film. It took several years for the film to become available in the U.S. because the distribution rights were purchased by a relatively small distributor, October Films. This is a charming and delightful film, for anyone who still knows how to slow down and take time to smell the roses. Personally, I'll take a film like this anytime over another hyper-paced, mindless shoot-'em-up action film out of Hollywood. The White Balloon is in Iranian with English subtitles and has a running time of 85 minutes. I suspect that this film could be enjoyed by children down to about the age of the protagonist, though I don't consider this film primarily a children's film.


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from Iran:

The Circle
Taste of Cherry

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12