This Iranian film was one I found listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, it was selected as an entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, but was not accepted as a nominee, I hoped it would be worthwhile. Basically in Teheran, it is the eve of the Iranian New Year, seven-year-old Razieh (Aida Mohammadkhani) has seen a goldfish in a shop and begins nagging her hurrying Mother (Fereshteh Sadr Orfani) to buy it for the festivities instead of the skinny ones in her family's pond at home. On their way home, the mother and daughter pass a crowd of men gathered to watch two snake charmers, Razieh wants to see what is happening, but her mother pulls her away. Back home, Razieh is upset her mother is refusing to let her a new goldfish but continues her campaign of nagging. Her older brother Ali (Mohsen Kalifi) returns from a shopping errand for their father, he is unseen, but his presence causes tension in the family, he complains that we asked for shampoo, not soap. When Ali returns with the shampoo, Razieh enlists his help in changing her mother's mind about the goldfish, bribing him with a balloon, insisting she can buy it for 100 tomans. Razieh finally gets her wish, her mother gives her the family's last 500-toman banknote and asks her to bring back the change, she sets off with an empty glass jar to the fish shop a few blocks away. On the way, Razieh stops to watch the snake charmers, one of them takes the banknote from her to wrap around a snake, tempting her to grab it back, but they eventually give it back to her, seeing that she is getting upset. Then while running to the shop, she stops outside a cake shop for a moment, she reaches the shop selling goldfish, but then she realises she has lost her money. An Old Woman (Anna Bourkowska) takes pity on Razieh and helps her to retrace her steps and find the banknote, it is found in a grate that leads to the basement of a shop. After the old woman leaves, the money has fallen into the grate and the basement of the shop, which is closed for the New Year celebration. Ali comes along, as his sister has been gone for some time, together they try to find a way to retrieve the money and receive help from many people, including the Tailor shop owner (Mohammad Bakhtiari) next door and an Iranian soldier (Mohammad Shahani). The money is just out of reach, but the fish shop owner promises he will try not to sell the fat white and orange goldfish until the little girl returns. Finally, the siblings receive help from a young Afghan street vendor (Aliasghar Samadi) selling balloons, he carries his balloons on a wooden stick, he has a white one left. The group attach a piece of chewing gum to the end of his stick, and with it, reach down into the basement through the grate and pull the money out. In the end, Ali and Razieh run off to buy the goldfish, leaving the balloon seller sitting alone on the grate, the siblings pass him and are happy to finally have the fish, and the change, and the boy walks away with his white balloon. Also starring Hamidreza Tahery as Reza and Asghar Barzegar as the Pet Shop Manager. It is a very simple story, a journey of discovery for a little girl desperate to buy a goldfish, and her desperate attempts to get the money back to buy it, Mohammadkhani is cute, and her insights make the ordinary seem miraculous, it is slow and annoying in parts, but overall it is a delightful drama. Good!

Several people try to help a little girl to find the money her mom gave her to buy a goldfish with.I am not as convinced as other people that this is a "great" movie, but it is a pretty good one. Despite being very simple, it happens to be rather effective. The director has said the intent was (at least in part) to make a movie for one dollar that Hollywood would have spent millions on. And in that respect he succeeded.The film itself is not overly exciting, but it does have one thing going for it: it shows the everyday lives of the Iranian people. This is something that I think always has value for people watching in America, because somehow over the years Iran has become the country's chief rival (even more than Russia). I understand the reasons why, but find it unfortunate that the citizens have been demonized in the process. Watching films like this helps rectify that.

I hated this film when I saw it first time. I though that the little girl was a brat. But as I was watching it this time, I realized how unfair that was. She was just a girl. I guess we are so used to watching adorable and cute kids in films, that a selfish kid seems so unlikable. But kids are like that. Selfish and impatient and whining. Once I accepted that I was laughing at her antics.I loved the film but it lost me in the scene, when the girl's brother and the afghan kid fight. I mean there was no reason for that. I think in real life, the brother would have at least asked the afghan kid for the stick and wouldn't have just snatched it. Maybe it was done to evoke a conflict. But even one false scene can break the illusion that is Cinema.

Assuming you're keeping up-to-date with your current affairs, you'll have heard that the great democracy of Iran yesterday jailed director Jafar Panahi for six years, and forbade him from making movies, going abroad, or giving media interviews for the next twenty years. Allegedly, he had been producing a film critical of the Iranian government; that is, he was calling a spade a spade.As a sort of one-man protest, I decided to watch one of Panahi's movies. 'The White Balloon (1995)' was the director's feature debut, and won the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It tells an extremely simple tale, almost in real time: a young girl is given a 500-toman banknote to buy a goldfish for the Iranian New Year. On the way to the market, she loses the money down a sewer grate, and spends the rest of the film trying to get it back, either ignored or aided by the strangers she meets.Putting the plot so simply doesn't really suggest a riveting cinematic experience, but I must say I was taken by the effectiveness of the film. We experience the bustling marketplace through the lens of the young girl, and genuinely share her mixed emotions. This really struck a chord with me. When I was a prep (age 5), I got lost during a school excursion, and I can still recall the dropping of my stomach, the quickened breathing, the welling of tears (don't worry, we got icy poles afterwards!). That's the feeling I got here, particularly when the snake charmer stole the girl's money and claimed it as a "donation." I felt as helpless as she did.Fortunately, the film's overriding emotion is one of optimism. Strangers, seeing a child in distress, stop to offer their assistance. A young Afghan balloon-seller proffers a stick and chewing gum with which to retrieve the out-of-reach money. The girl's brother, a resourceful kid of about age ten, arrives on the scene, and suddenly everything seems like it's going to be OK. Sometimes simple films can be the most enjoyable of all.