Another great movie by director Majid Majidi (from who I have seen Baran last week.)Stylistcly it starts similarly: while the credits are running with bright letters on black background we hear something that we can identify only when the credits are over and picture is shown. This time a teacher is giving back audiotapes to blind children in the boarding school for the blind. We follow the story of a smart and lovable blind boy, whose father tries to get rid of him, in order to be able to get married again. (The boy’s mother died years before.)
The boy is truly wonderful, everybody loves him. He brings color to his sisters and his grandmother’s life and would to his father’s too if he allowed that. But he is too occupied with his plans and covering up his own love for his son. That becomes his fate. In a memorable scene he almost curses Allah, asking what did he do to deserve the punishment of loosing his wife and having only one son, who is blind and who won’t be able to take care of him in his elder years. But his own metaphorical blindness towards his son brings him even worse when his mother dies and his son falls into the flooding river. There is a happy end, that I didn’t expect but was happy to see the ray of hope. (literally). This one is a real tearjerker in a good sense, grabbed my heart.