Frontier Blues is a portrait of an Iranian border Steppes region by the Caspian Sea that has been fought over for centuries and depicted through the eyes of four village characters, each of a differing tribe - a Persian, a Kazak, a Turkman and an Armenian. Added to which is a Tehran photographer trying to capture it all on film, taxi drivers, cafe owner, factory manager etc. All have aimless lives with no real prospects. Mundane existences in a wide barren landscape littered with relics of the past. The dark humour, stoicism and pathos is abundant and the whole cinematic experience is a true joy to watch. Frontier Blues can be equally likened to other slow paced world cinema gems such as Lake Tahoe, Vodka Lemon, The Return, Historias Minimas, The Banishment, Las Acacias and the wonderful Once Upon A Time in Anatolia. So much different from standard mainstream cinema carp of today. To me they all provide to a western outsider an education and greater understanding of these peoples and places.

What is so wonderful about Frontier Blues, and also Babak Jalali's previous short, "Heydar: An Afghan in Tehran", is that he is showing us a view of Iran that most of us here have never been exposed to— a perspective free of politics and chaos in a part of Iran that most of us could only see in photo books. And while those photographs reveal the beauty and majesty of northern Iran, they cannot reveal the humanity that Babak is exploring in his film. There are no photos that could capture that monotony of every day life for Alam who works on a chicken farm but who is desperately in love with a girl he has never spoken to. Or Hassan, the village idiot, who's best friend is his donkey and his uncle Kazem who owns a small clothing store where nothing quite fits any one who comes in. And the minstrel who tells the audience of his wife, stolen from him by a man in a green Mercedes years ago.The people that inhabit Frontier Blues are settled but lost. They long for something better or long for what they could have had, but they continue to live and work every day. The majestic beauty of northern Iran is merely a backdrop, one that doesn't impress them anymore the way they do outsiders. They are stoic and laconic men, maybe more so than if they were not on camera, but in some ways, that is the point. Jalali is looking deeply into them, which often requires a bit of silence and focus, but what he finds is truly beautifully strange.

I recently saw this film at the Edinburgh Film Festival. What a brilliant first feature!The story follows the lives of different men living in a small town in northern Iran. The stories are simple and beautiful, about love and lose, men desperately trying to make a connection and to find meaning in their monotonous everyday existence. I really loved the pacing of the film. It takes its time. It achieves humor and pathos without trying. It is the kind of film that only comes around once in a while, the kind of film that is getting harder and harder to make or released. I recommend this gem to anyone who loves the cinema of Kaurismäki or Kiarostami. Babak Jalali is certainly a great new director to watch!

I saw this film at Locarno last year. It's an interesting film and a definite departure from the standard Iranian art-house fare which is refreshing. It's beautifully shot and the melange of humour and melancholy works well. First time director Babak Jalali offers us a look into the world of his native hometown in northern Iran on the border of Turkmenistan, which we would never have seen otherwise. It's a meditative, stylistic portrait of 4 men getting on with their lives, with nowhere to go and not much to look forward to. It does not fall into the trap of clichéd looks at the Middle East and manages instead to provide a heartfelt look at the human condition. It's opening in London this week and I would definitely try and catch it as it's the sort of film you have to see on the big screen.