Gabbeh (DVD)
APPROX. 75 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 1996 - MPA RATING: NR
" My words cannot fully do justice to the pictures. Dare I say that you will simply have to see it for yourself?
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As for the message of "Gabbeh," I suspect some of it is lost in the translation. Makhmalbaf struggles to get his work approved by heavy-handed Iranian censors, and only got the green light to work on this project by claiming he was working on a documentary about gabbehs. The director often has to be rather oblique about his politics. Gabbeh is repeatedly forced to put her own life on hold because of men. First, she must wait for her uncle to marry; later, her father simply forbids her to wed because he requires her help. I´m not sure what, if anything, Makhmalbaf is trying to say about patriarchal authority in Iran beyond the most obvious point: women are not treated well.
As lovely as "Gabbeh" is, there is a sense that the film is self-consciously artsy-fartsy. A hen lays an egg, and the egg becomes a symbol for the child the old man never had. We return to the shot of the uncle reaching his hand out to a sea of flowers over and over again. Perhaps the film strains a bit too much to be pretty and poetic, but I must admit that it succeeds in both endeavors.
Video
The film is presented in original 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio. The transfer isn´t quite as sharp as I might hope, but it succeeds on the most important front, by preserving the gorgeous colors that dominate the film´s visual design.
Audio
The DVD is presented in Dolby Digital Stereo. Optional English language subtitles support the audio which is in Farsi.
Extras
Aside from trailers, the only extra is the feature-length commentary track by critic Godfrey Cheshire. Fortunately, the commentary is one of the better examples of its kind. The DVD revolution has changed the film landscape in many ways, but one of the most interesting to me is the way that DVDs provide an outlet for some of the finest film scholarship being produced today. Cheshire´s illuminating commentary is a fine compliment to this mysterious and elusive film.
Closing Thoughts
I thought I had Iranian cinema figured out. Abbas Kiarostami was the great poet and painter, while Makhmalbaf was the more prosaic craftsman. Now I realize how wrong I was. In films like "Gabbeh" and "The Silence," Makhmalbaf shows he is every bit the auteur as Kiarostami and just as capable of creating strikingly beautiful images. They are both masters. I´ve said this before and I will now repeat it: If you are missing out on Iranian cinema, you are missing some of the most exciting and vital films of the modern era.
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