The Fish Fall in Love | Mahiha Ashegh Mishavand (2006)

Synopsis

After 22 years, Aziz decides to return to his hometown, to sell some family possessions, including the house where he was born.

But for his astonishment, the place is now a small restaurant, run by four women, one of them a girl whom he once dated.

Attieh, the girl, tries to convince him not to sell the place by, instead of telling him a story a day as Sheherazade, cooking him a delicious dish every day. --IMDb



Cast: Reza Kianian, Roya Nonahali, Golshifteh Farahani, Maryam Saadat, Farokh Nemati, Siamak Safari, Mehdi Pakdel, Maedeh Tahmasbi, Alireza Oliaee, Sina Razani, Farhad Ayeesh

Produced by: Hassan Kalami, Aftab Negaran, Ali Rafie
Production Design by: Ali Rafie     
Costume Design by: Ali Rafie
Cinematography: Mahmood Kalari
Editor: Varuzh Karim-Masihi


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Atieh’s singular passion is food, and her small but popular restaurant on the sleepy Caspian coast is her pride and joy.

But when Aziz, her former fiancé, appears after a twenty-year absence, the women believe he has intentions of closing the restaurant, so Atieh prepares his favorite dishes, one after the other, in a desperate effort to convince him otherwise.



Loosely based on the Persian fable of Shahrazad and the Thousand Myths (A Thousand and One Nights), director Ali Raffiee uses the language of food to paint a richly textured portrait of life and love on the northern coast of Iran.

The Fish Fall in Love The soundtrack by Ali Samadpour

The Fish Fall in Love by {Ali Rafiee} is a simple and gentle film that adapts the same language of food, this time from northern Iranian cuisine, to speak of life.

This is a film that will leave its taste in the pallet long after the curtains have dropped.



The sound of the Caspian, the beautiful images that accompany it (true, they are somewhat touristy), will imprint themselves on the memory, even with the realization that the characters peopling this movie are unlike any you may see or come across. And why not?

We shouldn't expect every movie to be deep and philosophical, solving humanity's problems in an hour and a half, should we? 

The Fish Fall in Love is the veteran theater director's first film and it is an unexpectedly good one, void of the director's usual theatrics.

Perhaps the director has now come to terms with his audience on the silver screen, which has a more general viewership. 

Rafi'i's last play, It Doesn't Snow in Egypt, didn't do well with Tehrani theater-goers.



In an interview with Hamshahri newspaper, he unjustifiably called those who went to the City Theater "Potato-chips and cheese-puff audiences," who had no stomach to grasp his work.

This is when he had earlier eulogized Vahdat Hall audiences cultured and erudite.

Perhaps it is more the case that Vahdat Hall has attendees that seldom care if they are seeing a {Pari Saberi} play, the choreography of {Farid Masuleh}, or the music of {Loris Tchekovaria}, while the more serious audiences went to the City Theater to see a play. 

It could be that this smooth and sweet movie, with its beautiful scenes, indicates that Rafi'i is done insulting his audiences. ( -- By Jinoos Taghizadeh, Hamed Safaee, Sima Saeedi, Mohammadreza Fakhrabadi info@tehranavenue.com ) 

Read about this film

Country: Iran
Language: Farsi
Color: Color
Runtime: 96 min.