Orderly or Unorderly | Beh tartib ya bedoun-e tartib (1981)

Synopsis

A sense of order is the necessary basis of any good social organisation. To illustrate this axiom, Kiarostami presents a series of paired scenes in which the same action is first shown in an organised way and then in an anarchic one.

The film crew, however, finds it difficult to organise disorder. A school scene. Class has ended. Students walk down the stairs in an orderly fashion. Good. Now rewind. Class has ended. Students walk down the stairs in a disorderly fashion. Bad.

The students make their way to a central court for their classroom break. A single water dispenser is at the center. Some students gather to drink.

In orderly fashion it takes them a minute and ten seconds to satisfy their thirst. Rewind. In disorderly fashion it takes them three minutes and the dispenser is trashed in the confusion.

The point? Orderly behavior is efficient.

The dualist approach is now applied to pedestrians crossing a street. Orderly requires waiting for the green light. Disorderly means dodging cars and forcing cars to brake.

Next, cars approach a narrow tunnel. They bunch up at the entrance in disorderly fashion. If simple rules of orderly merging are obeyed by drivers, the cars line up quickly to enter the tunnel.

A major street intersection. Every car is trying to cross the intersection at the same time in all directions. Fender benders are avoided by centimeters.

Turbulent flow is inefficient. Now Kiarostami tries to set the orderly version. A policeman is called in to put some order. But can he succeed in a city where cars are handled by disorderly drivers? Hey, what's that?

A pedestrian just entered the frame disorderly running across the moving traffic. I guess it is hopeless in Iran. -- IMDb

Company: Institute for Intellectual  Development  of Children & Young Adults – KANOON – Iran

With the co-operation of: Azad, Anvar, Eslami, Alvandipour, Habibi, Saïdi, Moradi.

Read about this film

Country: Iran
Language: Farsi
Color: Color
Runtime: 17 min.