Your Cart is Empty
It Is Winter (DVD) by Rafi Pitts
$9.95
20007
- It Is Winter (DVD)
- Poverty and isolation in modern Iran
- Director: Rafi Pitz
- Starring: Mitra Hajjar, Ali Niksoulat
|
Synopsis A bleak vision in a bleak environment, It's Winter gets determinedly bleaker like the onset of the cruellest season. An Iranian filmmaker who trained in London, Rafi Pitts tells a story of the barrenness of trying to scrape together an existence in an unforgiving modern world. Set in Tehran among an impoverished underclass, it examines lives of two men which overlap in a fatalistic way that is reminiscent of the themes of Abel Ferrara (about whom Pitts once made a documentary): when things are really crap, they will generally get much worse. When the road ahead is unwelcoming and the snow is freezing, what else do you do but hunker down in your collar? Imagine trying to philosophise with someone in such a situation - their bottom line is not what your ideas are but whether or not you can put bread in their mouth. Mokhtar, unable to find work, leaves his wife and child to find employment in more distant lands. After seeing him onto a train we pick up with another man, Marhab, at the end of his journey. The dislocation is such that it takes a while to realise that Marhab has arrived in the same area that Mokhtar has just left. Marhab is also struggling to find and keep work, but still manages to get married in a short space of time - to Mokhtar's wife (whose former husband is believed dead) Whatever joy there is in these people's lives is consigned almost to a footnote. We are not given the excuse to believe they are really ok because they can enjoy the odd cup of soup. Such a false projection of happiness would let us off the hook too easily. The reality for such people in modern day Iran is all too realistically portrayed. An ingenious and very nihilistic coda rams home the message that there is little to look forward to - even less than hope might suggest. Format:DVD
Runtime:86 minutes
Type: Drama / Family Language:In Farsi with English subtitles |