iranian cinema: 1 post

A little girl is waiting for her mother on a busy sidewalk in Tehran. All other first graders have already been picked up by their parents, while she, a girl with her arm in a sling, is still alone. Her quilted pink jacket hangs open; her blue school satchel is dragging on the ground. She peers at the people passing by, attempts to make a phone call and then decides that she’s going home on her own. A school mistress’s friend offers to give her a lift on his bike, but she hops off midway thinking that she has spotted her mother on the bus.

And so starts Mina’s adventure in Jafar Panahi’s film The Mirror. She gets on the wrong bus. She hears people’s stories. She’s worried about not being able to find her mom. And then suddenly, she stares straight into the camera, rips off her arm cast, her pink coat and her white headscarf and announces that she doesn’t want to play anymore. The camera swivels to show the bus full of shocked and confused film crew, with Panahi himself burying his head in his hands. We’re as shocked as they are. What’s going on?

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