REVIEW/FILM/CANNES:Iran's
"Gabbeh"
is Mesmerizing
By Godfrey Cheshire
CANNES (Variety) - An exultantly lyrical vision of nomadic
life in southeastern Iran, Mohsen Makhmalbaf's ``Gabbeh'' adds yet
another jewel to the crown of recent Iranian cinema.
In a manner recalling ``The Color of Pomegranates'' and other films
by Sergei Paradjanov, the picture unfolds imagery so startling and
beautiful that it will keep viewers rapt even where narrative tantalizes
with poetic opacity.
The result is both distinctive and accessible enough to be assured an
honored place on the festival circuit, and could catch the eye of
discriminating art distributors.
The picture's unusual method places far more emphasis on visual than
verbal elements. An early image that recurs, for example, shows a
gorgeously colorful carpet floating downstream, its pattern containing a
depiction of a couple riding a horse. The story later suggests various
possible explanations for who those riders might be, but nailing down
meanings ends up seeming less important than simply surrendering to the
image's haunting mystery.
The carpet itself, though, has a very functional meaning in the small
clan of nomads we see here, as it is made from the wool of the sheep
they raise. Such carpets are called gabbehs, and one of the women bears
the same name. Gabbeh (Shaghayeh Djodat) is beautiful but looks forlorn
as she watches an old man and woman of the tribe engage in what seems
like an endless spat over romantic possibilities lost in the distant
past.
These recriminations frame the question of why Gabbeh is unhappy. The
reason, she testifies, is that family demands have kept her from
marrying her intended. Her father insists she delay her plans until her
uncle returns from a trip. When the uncle comes back, her father says
that she must wait until the uncle finds a bride. A dream illustrates
that the uncle's wife will be found next to a stream, ``singing like a
canary,'' which prompts a search that eventually turns up that woman.
The discovery doesn't solve Gabbeh's problems, though. Her would-be
husband remains nothing but a silhouette on a horse, forever framed
against the horizon. He follows the tribe as it moves from place to
place, over terrain that ranges from verdant plains to craggy, spectral
mountains.
Story manages to be rigorously simple yet fascinatingly resonant.
Whether Gabbeh's state of perpetual yearning is taken as a metaphor for
her endangered people, a comment on the disadvantages of women in
traditional societies or a reflection of romance's eternal frustrations,
Makhmalbaf's telling never falters in its grace or elegant economy.
Likewise, the picture is mesmerizing in combining elements of a
first-rate documentary and an utterly fantastical fable.
Compared with the hectic and ironic tones of the director's past
films, ``Gabbeh'' is limpid and full of a master's unerring confidence.
Its dazzling use of color could almost be its sole motivation, but
Makhmalbaf proves no less audacious in his juxtaposition of images and
sounds, as in a scene where the weaving of a carpet is intercut with the
birth of a lamb and the noises of both events merge into a kind of
rhythmic mantra.
Mahmoud Kalari's fine cinematography adds immeasurably to a film
that, like other Iranian works, amazes with the revelation of the
technical sophistication that can be achieved on limited means. Indeed,
the picture suggests how much such feats depend on the kind of poetic
sureness that Makhmalbaf displays here, adding to his reputation as a
filmmaker of remarkable daring and sensitivity.
A Sanayeh Dasti (Teheran) and MK2 Prods. (Paris) co-production.
Directed, written, edited by Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Camera (color), Mahmoud
Kalari; music, Hossein Alizadeh. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (Un
Certain Regard), May 12, 1996.
- Gabbeh .... Shaghayeh Djodat
- Old man ... Hossein Moharami
- Rogheih ... Rogheih Moharami
- Uncle ..... Abbas Sayah