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Djomeh (2001) Directed by: Hassan Yektapanah Date of birth: 1963 Iran Writing credits: Hassan Yektapanah Country: France / Iran Language: Farsi Color: Color Runtime: 94 min Released: 2001 Genre: Drama |
DJOMEH, a quietly powerful Iranian film about a young Afghani farmer who falls in love with a local woman, concentrates on the simplicity of daily routines while pointing out the magic and emotion that is present in even the most seemingly banal rural settings. However, when the farmer asks the woman for her hand in marriage and the local people reject him because of his heritage, his simple life grows much more complicated.
Djomeh is a young Afghan man who works on a small dairy farm in the remote Iranian countryside. Every morning, Djomeh accompanies farm owner Mr. Mahmoud to nearby small villages to collect milk for resale.
Djomeh's naive spirit cannot be stifled because of his foreigner status. He smiles and speaks openly despite the villagers' suspicious and cold attitudes. He tries to integrate himself into his new world, much unlike his older guardian and co-worker Habib.
Because of Habib's conservative personality, Djomeh does not feel comfortable turning to him for advice. Even when he falls for local girl Setareh and dreams of settling down in Iran. During their routine morning truck journeys in the hilly desert region, Djomeh' develops a warm communication with his employer, Mr. Mahmoud. Djomeh soon opens up to Mr. Mahmoud about his troubled past in Afghanistan.
Despite their different social and ethnic backgrounds, Mr. Mahmoud is touched by Djomeh's generous personality. Mr. Mahmoud becomes sensitive to Djomeh's reflections on the contrasts between the Afghan and Iranian cultures.
As Djomeh's longing for Setareh grows, he becomes more and more restless about keeping his secret love deep within. Unfortunately, strict Iranian customs do not allow for an open courtship. Djomeh asks Mr. Mahmoud to serve as a chaperone to pursue marriage with Setareh. A bold gesture that crosses all cultural boundaries and forces the two men to tenderly reflect on the difficulties of solitude and the universal need to be loved. (Summary by Kossuth 4 Mozi)
Starring:
Jalil Nazari
Rashid Akbari
Mahmoud Behraznia
Valiollah Beta
Mahbobeh Khalili
Djomeh is desperately lonely. He lives in exile, banished from his Afghan village because of his love for a woman both older than him and widowed. Under the eye of his older, more conservative cousin, Habib, he lives and works on a small dairy farm in a remote, dusty, mountainous area of Iran.
Habib, who is also lonely, hides his loneliness under stoicism. But, kindly, easy-going Djomeh is neither hard enough to follow his cousin’s example, nor does he see the point: he wants there to be more to his life than cows. Iranian director Yektapanah’s gently paced, deceptively simple début feature explores Djomeh’s limited possibilities. He works – and he talks. And with the brusque Habib, he quarrels. But driving around in the truck on the daily milk round, Djomeh can talk openly and honestly with the dairy owner – Mahmoud, 40-odd and, like his two workers, still unmarried.
After Djomeh sees Setareh, the village shopkeeper’s daughter, he finds every excuse to jump on his bike to go shopping – and wooing. It isn’t easy. Tradition forbids an unmarried man and woman speaking. And he’s an outsider, ignorant of local ways, and poor.
The Hollywood dream factory insists that romances end happily. Its aim is to make the viewer, identifying with the lovers, feel good. Yektapanah’s refusal of a simple resolution instead leaves his viewers with an abiding sense, not just of his characters, but their wider social and historical circumstances. A restrained and impressive film, that explores the ways in which people overcome barriers and create the possibilities for friendship and community.(Summary taken from here)
Djomeh
Derek Malcolm
Guardian Unlimited
Friday December 14, 2001
This is the first feature from an assistant to Abbas Kiarostami, Iran's blue riband director, which shared the Camera d'Or at Cannes this year. And granted that almost anything that moves across the screen from that country these days seems to get a prize somewhere or other, it's a touching, nicely made debut.
It's the story of an Afghan refugee living in a remote mountain region of Iran and both homesick and lovesick. He has been forced to leave Afghanistan because he's committed the sin of falling in love with a widow, and no sooner does he get over that than he finds himself attracted to the daughter of a local shopkeeper. By tradition, however, he can't talk to her himself and has to find a friend to do so for him.
Yektapanah paints his picture of a lonely man, treated with suspicion by the locals, with enough humanity and understanding to make us root for him throughout. He is aided by a highly sympathetic performance from Jalil Nazari.
The film is about the difficulties faced by any foreigner living in a strange land but, of course, the fact that he's an escapee, presumably from the Taliban, gives the film extra relevance now. While it may have been a shade lucky to achieve a share of the Camera d'Or for best first feature at Cannes, Djomeh is beautiful to look at and joins The Circle, A Time For Drunken Horses and Kandahar as examples of an Iranian cinema which, at its best, shines pretty brightly out of the mist of mediocrity we are often treated to.
Interview: Hassan Yektapanah
Q. You worked as an assistant director for long time before this debut with Djomeh.
A. I was an assistant director for 19 years, and I spent 13 years with Ali Hatami. Then I became an assistant director for Abbas Kiarostami and it felt like a whole new world opened up in front of me. I had chances to debut as a director even before meeting him, but I could not use these chances because I was not sure what I wanted to shoot. At last, when I met Ali Hatami, I discovered something I had been looking for. This encounter with him not only changed my vision of filming, but also that of my life.
Q. Why did you choose a young Afghani as the main character?
A. Currently, there are 4 million Afghanis in Iran. Marriage between an Afghani and Iranian is prohibited. One of the reasons I chose to portray a young Afghani as the main role is to protest against those things. I don't believe in categorizing people all over the world. People need bread and water, and people need love even more. The idea that there is a need for love that has nothing to do with religion or nationality was one of my motives in creating this film.
Q. It seems like Iran is producing young and talented directors one after another. Is there any reason for this?
A. The history of Iranian film did not begin overnight. Before the Islamic revolution there were great directors such as Sohrab Shahid-Saless. The technical standard of Iranian film is not high, but if we can improve it, we will see even greater film from Iran.
More films created by Hassan Yektapanah
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