Poet of the wastes | Shaere zobale-ha (2005)

Synopsis

With a spare, conceptual screenplay by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the grandfather of Iranian cinema, comes a remarkable debut from director Mohammad Ahmadi.

This is an unusual fare from Tehran: a film whose intent is to steer absolutely clear of political commentary.

The protagonist, a self-conceived street cleaner-fortune teller, adeptly portrayed by Farzin Mohades, collects what others have discarded, and in so doing takes the audience on a romantic adventure in which he encounters a beautiful girl and a poet.



One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, so they say. In this whimsical narrative, it just might be that one neighborhood’s trash is, in the hands of a silent observer, the stuff of poetry.
In the streets of Teheran, a street-sweeper-poet learns the most intimate secrets of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, when he examines their bags of rubbish.

One day he finds a desperate letter from a woman. He begins to write to her and follows her every morning to an embassy where she is waiting for a visa so that she can leave the country.

He nurtures romantic love without finding the courage to declare himself.

From the bags of rubbish, the frustrations of the other street-sweepers, the endless queues for the visa, the malaise and concerns of Iranian society are exposed in tragicomic and poetic tones. 

An unnamed young nebbish (Farzin Mohades), struggling as a street cleaner, comes across rejected poems by a housebound writer (Mohammad Eskandari) and the first drafts of letters written by a woman (Leila Hatami) to her brother.

Anonymously delivering the poems to the woman's house, the cleaner attempts to win her heart by passing them off as his own. 

Pic accurately catches the desperation of working poverty but Mohades' whining voice soon grates.

Hatami's turn as the woman is boosted by the enchanting music of Tajikistani composer Daler Nazarov ("Luna Papa", composer) that coincides with the actress's every appearance.

Helming and all tech credits are clean. -- Variety

Cast: Leila Hatami, Farzin Mohades, Mohammad Eskandari, Saber Abbar, Faramarz Hashemzadeh, Ahmad Mehranfar, Eghbal fatali-zadeh, Naghi Savari, Mohammad Sharifi, Abolfazle Shah karam, Ataollah Moradi      

Read about this film

Country: India | Iran
Language: Farsi
Color: Color
Runtime: 81 min.