Gol ya pooch | Full or Empty | Null or Score (2006)

Synopsis

Navid (Navid Raisi), who is 17, leaves his village for a port city near the Pakistan border, seeking employment as a teacher of Persian literature.

Told he needs two letters of recommendation from local citizens, he finds an old sheep farmer and a widow living in a hovel, Madame Sakineh (Sakineh Azadi), to vouch for him. Then he's told to produce police documents showing he has no criminal record.



While waiting for authorization to teach, he demonstrates his can-do spirit in a host of odd jobs, from animal guardian to pool hall bouncer to barber.

Almost everything lands him in trouble, especially his insistent courtship of pretty Mahrokh (Jamileh Baluchi), whom he barely knows. But Navid, part poet and part businessman, never loses hope.

Cast: Navid Raeesi, Sekineh Azadi, Vahid Khedir, Jamile Baluchi, Yasin Khoshamad-zehi, Mohammad-Javad Sadeghi

Produced by: Abolfazl Jalili
Cinematography by: Abolfazl Jalili
Editing by: Abolfazl Jalili


"A charmingly offbeat social comedy about an ingenious Iranian boy thwarted in his twin ambitions to become a village teacher and marry a girl he has glimpsed, "Full or Empty" (also known as "Null or Score") brings out the gentle wit of filmmaker Abolfazl Jalili, best known for dramas like autobiographical "The First Letter." Here again a young man bucks society, tradition and everything else in the stubborn pursuit of his dreams. This small film, has earned a cheer and a laugh from festival audiences wherever it plays." (Variety)

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