isla s
This is an insightful film about a blind boy in Tajikistan who works for a local instrument maker and what happens when he travels in to work each day. It's interesting to hear the traditional music and see the surroundings of such a foreign place. It's also surprising how well the boy (Khorsid) gets on given his blindness. This is a relatively short but interesting and enjoyable watch which I'd recommend for fans of world cinema, yes.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This film features fabulous cinematography but not much else. I watched the entire thing because I was mesmerised by the colorful scenes, apparently taken somewhere in Tajikistan. It was fun also to listen to the Tajik language, which is really just a dialect of the Persian spoken in Iran.
The problem was that the plot moved so slowly that it was hard to keep track of what was going on. I kept getting distracted by the market scenes and the lake scenes and all those beautiful colors. If you really appreciate good photography, though, it's probably worth watching the movie for that alone.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/14/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Mohsen Makhmalbaf shot his 1998 film SOKOUT (The Silence) in Tajikistan, a setting as exotic for his native Iran as for an international audience. As the film opens, we meet the blind boy Khurshid (Tahmineh Normatova) and his mother living on the outskirts of the capital Dushanbe, now recovering from several years of civil war. Each morning their landlord knocks on their door to remind them that the rent is due soon, threatening them with eviction if they don't pay up. Khurshid is employed in a workshop, tuning musical instruments before they are sold. However, his master is increasingly fed up by his tardiness, for on the way to work Khurshid tends to follow any pretty sound he hears. It falls to the master's adopted daughter Nadareh to ensure that Khurshid makes it to work, but she is fascinated by his different perspective on the world around him.
This is a film of rich visuals. While Makhmalbaf does portray the poverty and failing infrastructure of Tajikistan, he powerfully draws out the varied colours of the country, as well as the immense ethnic and racial diversity of Transoxiana. One curious focus of SOKOUT is the ambiguous period between girlhood and young womanhood, as Nadareh and another female character of the same age are first introduced with extreme closeups of their lower faces, which make their exact age uncertain. Although still very much a child, Nadareh is shown aspiring to adulthood, drooping cherries over her ears like earrings and placing flower petals over her fingernails as makeshift nail polish.
Although memorable and often entertaining, SOKOUT falls short of greatness, for what its plot all means is not clear. There's no closure or resolution, and indeed by the end of the film, things are looking worse for Khorshid and his mother than ever. Perhaps I'm simply missing an allegorical meaning that Makhmalbaf's Iranian audience will pick up on immediately. A couple of interpretations seem likely, and there's a clear attack on religious fundamentalists when Nadareh runs away from a soldier scolding girls without head scarves. But the film remains a great enigma for me. Another flaw is that the use of amateur actors, while it generally makes for authenticity, seems a limitation whenever trained actors come on screen, such as Araz M. Shirmohamadi playing a Turkmen nomad.
Still, I do recommend this film very much. Many scenes will stay with you, and this is a glimpse into a part of the world little-known in the West. I've watched SOKOUT several times now, and even if I never succeed in getting it, making another attempt is always an enjoyable 70 minutes.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/08/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Mohsen Makhmalbaf shot his 1998 film SOKOUT (The Silence) in Tajikistan, a setting as exotic for his native Iran as for an international audience. As the film opens, we meet the blind boy Khurshid (Tahmineh Normatova) and his mother living on the outskirts of the capital Dushanbe, now recovering from several years of civil war. Each morning their landlord knocks on their door to remind them that the rent is due soon, threatening them with eviction if they don't pay up. Khurshid is employed in a workshop, tuning musical instruments before they are sold. However, his master is increasingly fed up by his tardiness, for on the way to work Khurshid tends to follow any pretty sound he hears. It falls to the master's adopted daughter Nadareh to ensure that Khurshid makes it to work, but she is fascinated by his different perspective on the world around him.
This is a film of rich visuals. While Makhmalbaf does portray the poverty and failing infrastructure of Tajikistan, he powerfully draws out the varied colours of the country, as well as the immense ethnic and racial diversity of Transoxiana. One curious focus of SOKOUT is the ambiguous period between girlhood and young womanhood, as Nadareh and another female character of the same age are first introduced with extreme closeups of their lower faces, which make their exact age uncertain. Although still very much a child, Nadareh is shown aspiring to adulthood, drooping cherries over her ears like earrings and placing flower petals over her fingernails as makeshift nail polish.
Although memorable and often entertaining, SOKOUT falls short of greatness, for what its plot all means is not clear. There's no closure or resolution, and indeed by the end of the film, things are looking worse for Khorshid and his mother than ever. Perhaps I'm simply missing an allegorical meaning that Makhmalbaf's Iranian audience will pick up on immediately. A couple of interpretations seem likely, and there's a clear attack on religious fundamentalists when Nadareh runs away from a soldier scolding girls without head scarves. But the film remains a great enigma for me. Another flaw is that the use of amateur actors, while it generally makes for authenticity, seems a limitation whenever trained actors come on screen, such as Araz M. Shirmohamadi playing a Turkmen nomad.
Still, I do recommend this film very much. Many scenes will stay with you, and this is a glimpse into a part of the world little-known in the West. I've watched SOKOUT several times now, and even if I never succeed in getting it, making another attempt is always an enjoyable 70 minutes.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/08/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A Fantastic movie.. featuring the story of a blind boy with his poor lonely mother in Tjakistan .. the boy earns his own life by helping tuning musical instruments in traditional workshop..
his passion to music costs him losing his work..
the cinematography is just wonderful.. the music is wonderful and the art of direction in this movie is really a perfect work.. from Mohsen Makhmalbaf..
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/13/23
Full Review
Audience Member
didn't like, nice cinematography but no pace in the movie!
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
01/29/23
Full Review
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