Critics reviews

Gabbeh exists because Gabbeh exists because gabbeh exists, and the act of storytelling to renew and retain ourselves is Makhmalbaf's focus here, along with a crucial vibrancy: "life is color, love is color," the whimsical uncle instructs an invisible classroom, pulling the hues of the sky and the stream literally into his skin.

The movie is rich with editing tricks (many of which shift the story from reality to fiction), awesome location photography in the mountainous Iranian hinterlands . . . , and some of the most romantic use of color you'll ever see outside of a musical. This may lack the political orientation of Makhmalbaf's major works, but few of his films express the joy of filmmaking as constantly as this one.

Gabbeh is nothing if not ravishing in terms of colors, landscapes, sounds, and fairy-tale evocations. Since it premiered in Cannes last year, I've seen it at least four times, each time without being able to follow every twist in its dreamy, multilayered plot, but I've never felt frustrated as a consequence. The film offers a treasure chest; it's only after you total up the booty inside — assuming you consider this worth the trouble — that the contents seem meager.