This movie from British Iranian director Hassan Nazer was the British entry within the worldwide characteristic part at this yr’s Academy Awards; sadly it was not nominated. It’s a likable, mild comedy about two kids wherein an Oscar statuette performs a component: the last word MacGuffin, maybe. It’s additionally a reasonably cinephile movie which ponders the large status of Iranian cinema overseas.
The premise is that the nice Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, having boycotted the 2017 Oscars in protest at Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim journey ban, can’t be there in particular person to pick up his Oscar for The Salesman. However the producer bringing it to Iran for him manages to lose it after a chaotic mishap involving a taxi (that key trope of up to date Iranian cinema) and, as soon as handed to the authorities, the Oscar is boxed as much as be despatched on to him through the mail. Then an area postman loses it and the gleaming, mysteriously unique and heavy statuette is lastly found on a dusty highway by two little children, Yahya (Parsa Maghami) and Leyla (Helia Mohammadkhani) who’re profoundly, nearly religiously awestruck by their secret discover.
Yahya in actual fact is aware of a factor or two about cinema, having been educated by the film-loving man working the native scrap-metal yard, for whom they scavenge materials from the dump. That is Saber (Hossein Abedini), a former actor; his mate Naser can be within the enterprise, having truly received the Silver Bear appearing award on the Berlin movie pageant in 2008. He’s wittily performed by Reza Naji, who did certainly win this prize, and Naser now can’t come to phrases with the large anti-climax of his post-award life.
Like many “magic of the flicks” movies there’s something somewhat prescriptive about it and I’ve to admit my coronary heart sinks at folks going dewy-eyed about Cinema Paradiso, nevertheless sincerely. However I appreciated the free-spirited innocence right here, and the movie has one thing of British classics similar to Native Hero or Whisky Galore.
