I watched 94 minutes in Farsi & was fully focused on reading subtitles. It’s an incredible movie that plays with humor and contrasts, stereotypes and symbols. It showcases the insanely beautiful landscapes of the Iranian countryside while framing the sad cultural reality of emigration. Besides that Rayan Sarlak’s acting is outstanding. It’s easy to watch, yet artistic and intellectual - really really really worth watching
If you love it or if you don’t, this is a must see. A great work not just to introduce the iranian cinema but to also introduce a different culture and how creators find their ways to create through limitations. Iam absolutely amazed by this short film!!
I’ve watched Fermont by Barak Jalali on the plane and it absolutely got me.
It reminds me a bit of Greta Herwigs masterpiece Francis Ha, black & white filmed, a monotone atmosphere with it‘s occasional slapstick moments & the perfect amount of weirdness. Donya immigrates from Afghanistan to America and needs time to adapt & process this whole new life. She works in an fortune cookie factory and writes little fortunes every day. A hard topic wrapped in the lightness of a socially awkward protagonist who tries to feel anything.
in 2020 i set out to watch at least a film a day. spoiler: i didn't. i did managed to get just over 250 under my belt, which was a lot more than i thought possible given that i was working 44h a week at the time. one of the 34 films i watched in april (look, i was working remotely during that month. there's a lot o can accomplish when no one's watching me do my thing and i don't have to spend two hours a day on a bus) was certified copy. i wasn't familiar with kiarostami's work. i saw it on richard ayoade's criterion closet video and decided to give it a chance. To be quite honest i wasn't really impressed during the first half of it. but halfway through it i felt like someone had flipped a switch in my brain. it's a very particular scene; you'll know it when you watch it. it starts as a wonderful conversation on the meaning of originality, and then evolves into an exploration on the main characters' relationship, dancing on the line between fact and fiction. kiarostami was a master on the art of dialogue and metalanguage, and certified copy is just another example of it (check out the koker trilogy if you love this kind of stuff). it kickly became my favourite film, and every time i rewatch it i spend a few hours processing it.