Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Shirin (Abbas Kiarostami, 2008) is playing on Mubi Us through October 7, 2014.
As Abbas Kiarostami's 2008 Shirin begins, viewers hear a gate open or close, followed by dripping water and slow, deliberate footsteps. One might imagine a dark and musty dungeon with the faint shadow of an unseen figure sweeping across the stone wall. But the scene is a mystery and this would only be speculation. A close-up shot reveals a woman in a room so dark her hair and hijab almost disappear. She stares forward with a look of tempered curiosity as she pops a snack into her mouth. The footsteps continue and it’s immediately clear that the woman is in a theater watching the film to which the sounds belong.
The next scene is similar, with a different woman who appears to be patiently anticipating plot development.
As Abbas Kiarostami's 2008 Shirin begins, viewers hear a gate open or close, followed by dripping water and slow, deliberate footsteps. One might imagine a dark and musty dungeon with the faint shadow of an unseen figure sweeping across the stone wall. But the scene is a mystery and this would only be speculation. A close-up shot reveals a woman in a room so dark her hair and hijab almost disappear. She stares forward with a look of tempered curiosity as she pops a snack into her mouth. The footsteps continue and it’s immediately clear that the woman is in a theater watching the film to which the sounds belong.
The next scene is similar, with a different woman who appears to be patiently anticipating plot development.
- 9/19/2014
- by Matthew Harrison Tedford
- MUBI
“You can’t understand until it happens to you.”
Roya, played by Mahnaz Afshar, listens to this line left on her answering machine repeatedly. It is a part of her husband, Ali’s, confession to his infidelity with one of Roya’s piano students, with whom he’s run off. Ali sees himself as a victim of his passion, but for Roya, it is one of many moments in which her emotions and how she feels them are constricted or reshaped by the people around her, both male and female. Snow On Pines is about her struggle to cope with those feelings on her own terms in a society where traditions dictate her every move. Though this story is colored by the Iranian experience, its ideological aspirations are universally recognizable and not limited to arbitrary borders. Roya’s conflict is seen all over the world, even in countries considered significantly...
Roya, played by Mahnaz Afshar, listens to this line left on her answering machine repeatedly. It is a part of her husband, Ali’s, confession to his infidelity with one of Roya’s piano students, with whom he’s run off. Ali sees himself as a victim of his passion, but for Roya, it is one of many moments in which her emotions and how she feels them are constricted or reshaped by the people around her, both male and female. Snow On Pines is about her struggle to cope with those feelings on her own terms in a society where traditions dictate her every move. Though this story is colored by the Iranian experience, its ideological aspirations are universally recognizable and not limited to arbitrary borders. Roya’s conflict is seen all over the world, even in countries considered significantly...
- 2/13/2014
- by Jae K. Renfrow
- SoundOnSight
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