Bag of Rice

Kiseye Berendj

Iran

1998

80 Min

Color

Persian

Currently 1.8/5 Stars.
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CAST Jairan Abadzade, Masume Eskandari, Shirin Bina, Hossein Kalantar

Little Jairan comes from a large Tehran family. She is four years old and is often left to her own devices, because her parents both have to work and her brothers and sisters are all too busy with their homework. Nobody seems to have any time for her.

One day she manages to convince a neighbour, Mrs. Khanoom, to take her shopping with her. The old lady doesn’t really have much time for the little girl, but she does have to use her coupons to get rice. Her own son refuses to accompany her and, since the old woman doesn’t see very well and finds it hard to walk, she hopes that Jairan will be able to help her. And so it is that these two make their way through the busy streets of Tehran only to discover that the shop has already closed. Exhausted, Mrs. Khanoom sinks down on to the pavement. Encouraged by a female passer-by, however, Mrs. Khanoom decides to try another shop.

Finally, the little girl and the old lady find themselves with a heavy sack of rice at a bus stop. The bus is jam-packed and so it is no surprise when the rice sack bursts in the midst of the crush. Mrs. Khanoom is at the end of her tether how unlucky can you get! She quietly prays to God for help and, indeed, the other passengers actually help to collect up all the spilt rice. But Jairan and Mrs. Khanoom have to change buses once again; this time they no longer have just the one sack but several plastic bags. —salamcinema.com

Director

Mohammad-Ali Talebi

Born in Tehran in 1958, Mohammad Ali Talebi graduated from Tehran University’s College of Dramatic Arts. He started his career in cinema by working as assistant director and director of documentary films for the Iranian television. Talebi has contributed to the formation of the puzzle-like image of the post-revolution Iranian cinema which would be short of something without this piece. A review of his track record from City of Mice (1985) to The Wall, provides an analysis of policy making in Iranian cinema and the behavior of private sector in the film industry as well as a glimpse of the trend of filmmaking in post-revolution Iran. Every one of these titles could be the name of a chapter in this analysis: They could start from City of Mice and how you could entertain millions of viewers, The Finishing Line and the trend suggested by the private sector, Wilderness and the fate of a state-sponsored mystical cinema, The Boot and special position of Children and young adults’ cinema, Tic… read more