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Secret Ballot
***
Cinema Releases - November 1, 2002
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate U. Iran.
105 minutes. Written and directed by Babak Payami. Starring Nassam Abdi,
Cyrus Abidi, Youssef Habashi, Farrokh Shojaii, Gholbahar
Kanghali.
"Secret Ballot" takes place in an
Iranian desert, where a female supervisor has been paired with a male soldier
to tour the local area and organise election procedure. The day begins unsurely:
The guard is still sleepy when an airplane flies over his post and drops
the box that will be used to collect votes, and the arrival of his companion
leaves him thoroughly confused. "It says here that they're sending an agent,
not a woman," he says. "It says nothing about a man or woman," she responds,
without humour or debate. "You will help me or I'll see that you remain a
soldier forever."
And so the pair gets in the Jeep and tours the
desert, finding land workers, salesmen, families in their settlements and
randomly wandering souls. The woman and the soldier ask for the identification
of the people they run into, and collect their votes. Along the way, there
is conversation. The election agent, played by Nassim Abdi, is a city girl
-- middle-class, idealistic, full of theory about democracy. "It's better
for them if they vote," she declares, nodding her head in approval of her
own comments.
The soldier, played by Cyrus Abidi as a gruffly
detached, cynical and simple man, is not wowed by the rhetoric. "What's so
important about voting?" he asks, as if he's not going to be impressed by
any answer. Later, when the pair spots a guy running through sand, the woman
wants to pull over and get him to vote; the solider frowns and asks, "Why
would he be running if he's not a crook?"
The two main characters meet a diverse collection
of folks. Some of them know it is election day, and have been actively seeking
the election agent. Others look unsurely at the list of candidates, think
what the hell, and write out ballots. Many are apathetic: Abdi is a little
unprepared for the frustrating balance of intelligence and stubbornness that
the locals possess, and when she says, "You must choose someone to represent
you who understands your problems," she is unprepared for the obvious response:
"What do you know about our problems?"
There is a scene on the farm of a powerful old
matriarch called Granny Baghoo, where the residents are serene in their lack
of interest about the elections, forcing Abdi to realise, "They don't need
this. She has her own government here." One of the movie's best and funniest
scenes involves an old man supervising a solar energy station. He is expert
in his knowledge of the machinery around him, but doesn't think much of the
idea of electing human leaders. He figures that they won't choose his fate
and neither can he, and he casts a vote for God.
The movie is slow, simple and quiet, with performances
that range from efficiently crude to touchingly unadorned. It's easy to watch
because of beautifully bright and well-composed photography that regards
the exteriors of rural Iran with a kind of hushed contemplation, lovingly
regarding its skies, its coastlines, its messy crops and long stretches of
barren sand. There is a fascinating unspoken undercurrent of uncertainty
regarding the fact that the election agent is a woman, and it is also interesting
to listen to the dynamic of her and the soldier as they have the most
straightforward debates about the concept of democracy in a country that
is still slowly getting used to the idea.
The director, Babak Payami, was born in Iran,
lived in Canada for twenty years, and returned to his country of origin five
years ago to prepare for making this film. "Secret Ballot" is not especially
deep, but it is absorbing, intriguing and lightly dramatic and funny, because
after all, how many movies do we get to see about remote Iranian citizens
reacting to their national election day? Payami investigates the possibilities,
and his curiosity carries us along.
COPYRIGHT©
2002 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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