ESSAYS

A little bit of soul

On the occasion of four films by Majid Majidi in the Iranian Film Cycle III, Film Programmes, March 2010

This essay uses the four films presented as part of the Iranian Film Cycle III in Zagreb (Father, Children of Heaven, The Colour of Paradise, Baran) to interpret in ethical and philosophical terms the specific auteur poetics of Majid Majidi. The films Father, Children of Heaven and The Colour of Paradise are linked by a specific children perspective and sympathetics,the purpose of which is to send out a message that we should never forget to be children, not even in the adult world. The three films – also sharing the father and son relationship theme – tackle adult themes from the perspective of the small ones: what is that desire to own something, what is a wish to help someone? Children of Heaven thusfollow Kant’s ethics and The Colour of Paradise, Majidi’s conversation with God, Spinoza (Deus Sive Natura) in the story of a father who saves his soul after saving from an accident his blind son who talks to divine creatures. The film Father reverses the story – the son accepts his stepfather after he saves him from death – the stepfather searched for him in the desert where he was lost, literally in the desert of the soul. Baran no longer tackles the father and son relationship, discussing Love in general by telling a story of a search for a girl who was disguised as a man. The philosophical subtext for the film is Levinas’ ethics.

Marijan Krivak