FISH

My second foray into foreign film this week came with the viewing of the Iranian film, The Fish Fall in Love, a quiet, almost sad, story of a man who was jailed as a political prisoner when he was young, destroyed his relationship with his fiance. While he is in prison, she is married off into a marriage that soon goes bad, but she has a daughter, and her husband disappears. Most likely the daughter is Aziz's, the protagonist, but this is only hinted at in the movie. The film begins with Aziz returning after more than twenty years to his hometown in northern Iran, probably on the Caspain, originally with the intention of selling his family's property, only to find his former fiance and his daughter occupying one house that they have turned into a well-attended restaurant. He moves in upstairs, and the four women running the establishment try to make him stay by feeding him delicious meals (many of them looked scrumptious). But he is so stoic, and does not rise up to accusations nor does he ever step in and explain himself, which is frustrating. And she is strongwilled. I think the end of the movie was on a high note, but I am not sure. I do not know the actresses well, although Golshifteh Farahani is very beautiful. It was a nice movie, and it gives some insight into a part of Iran that few people probably even know about. It is not heavy handed in its criticism of the government, but it is there.