Written and Directed by: Abbas Kiarostami
Streaming on Mubi.
A school going boy in Iran, takes his friend's notebook by mistake. He goes out on a search of his friend's house because he wants to return it. This is the film. Such a simple premise. It beautifully talks about the importance of doing our regular duties. They show us the stakes in the first scene, where a couple of students cry as the teacher is angry with them. This kid doesn't want that to happen again, and that too because of his mistake. It's such a small conflict, but when you look at the kid's face, we know what it means to him. He simply doesn't want his friend to get yelled at. Everybody he tells this to, brushes it off and the kid still sticks to it, and that defines his integrity. The film operates on this level of conflict, where even when a man takes his notebook and harshly turn a few pages, we feel a little threatened, just like the kid. This film makes us empathize on that level - otherwise for the issues we have in our lives this is something so trivial - how can we even feel for something like this - and that's the beauty of this film.
Just like the conflict, and the story - the film has a simplistic style too - it just captures what's happening. Not a lot of camera movements, nor a lot of cuts, and nor long takes either. Not a lot of experiments with lighting or sound too. It's just plain simple storytelling. A film like this is considered essential viewing for children, but I'd say it's essential viewing for adults too, just to remind ourselves of the simplicity of life, and how life and the problems of life used to be back when we were kids.
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