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WSWS : Arts Review : Film Reviews

Jafar Panahi's The White Balloon: Things you should not watch

By David Walsh
20 November 1995

The White Balloon, directed by Jafar Panahi, takes place on March 21, the first day of spring and the Iranian New Year's day. Razieh, a seven-year-old girl, is determined to have a big goldfish for the holiday ceremonies. With her older brother's help, she manages to inveigle her mother's last banknote out of her.

On the way to the market to get her fish, she stops to watch the snake charmer, which her mother has explicitly told her not to do. Naturally, within a few minutes, the snake charmer and his assistant end up with her money. They soon relent, however, and hand it back to her.

At the market she enters into a discussion with the fish seller. It appears the goldfish she wants is more expensive than she thought. Razieh and the fish seller eventually reach an agreement on a price, but when she reaches for her money she discovers it's gone. A search reveals that she's dropped it down a grating outside a closed shop.

She has a number of encounters as she tries to find a way to retrieve the money. She waits patiently in the tailor shop next door, while the owner and a dissatisfied customer argue. Eventually her brother shows up. He goes off to find the owner of the closed shop. Razieh talks to a soldier who comes from a town hundreds of miles away.

An Afghan balloon seller, a young kid, comes along. When Razieh's brother grabs his balloon pole to try and retrieve the money, they get into a fight. But it's the Afghan boy who eventually sticks a piece of gum on the end of the pole, enabling them to get hold of the money. Razieh and her brother race off for the goldfish. The New Year's celebrations are just beginning. The final frame freezes the image of the solitary Afghan with a single white balloon on his pole.

This film's compassion is genuine. The last shot is less a criticism of Razieh and her brother for abandoning the balloon seller than a reminder that there is always someone who needs a helping hand. It is a matter of basic human solidarity. Director Panahi says of the balloon seller: "At the end of the film we are left with him and his solitude on New Year's day, because he is a foreigner, an Afghan refugee, and all alone in the city."

The film has another important theme. Panahi writes that Razieh "has heard over and over again: 'It's not good for girls to watch the snake charmers.' But as soon as she is on her own, Razieh joins the forbidden attraction of the snake charmers. And later she says: 'I wanted to see what it was that was not good for me to watch.' Razieh does this, because she has the courage to do it." Under a regime where so much is forbidden--particularly to girls and women--this certainly has subversive implications.

The White Balloon, from a story by leading Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami, is a strong film. What strikes the spectator above all is the intellectual and visual clarity. The scenes of Tehran life, especially the confrontation between the little girl and the snake charmers, are evocative and convincing.

Aida Mohammadkhani, as Razieh, demonstrates the degree of determination, perseverance and courage which the filmmaker obviously admires and wishes to instill in his audience.