(aka "At Five in the Afternoon" or Panj é asr" or "À cinq heures de l'après-midi")
directed
by Samira Makhmalbaf
Iran 2003
In her third feature, Iranian film maker Samira Makhmalbaf
depicts the struggles of an Afghani woman, who under the new freedom,
following the fall of the Taliban, tries to redefine herself as a woman.
Opposing her fundamentalist father, who wants her to get a traditional
religious education, she skips classes and goes to new school for girls. When
addressed with the question, how many of the girls would want to become the
first woman president of Afghanistan, she, along with two other students,
expresses the desire.
In her redefining herself as woman, Noqreh, not only goes against traditional
rules for courting, by forming a friendship with a man, but directly defies
society by wearing a pair of white shoes.
Contra to this stands a country marked by death, starvation and poverty, which
is overrun by former refugees coming from Pakistan. Searching for her sisters
lost husband and escaping the blasphemy, they follow their father across
Afghanistan. At the end, their journey ends in the desert. At five in the
afternoon comes death. So begins the film, quoting Spanish poet Lorca, so ends
the film, with the father burring his dead grandson, thus transposing the
elegy of Lorca onto situation in Afghanistan: “The rest was death, and death
alone at five in the afternoon.”
Awarded with the Jury prize at Cannes, this is not only the most ambitious
film by Samira Makhmalbaf, but also her most mature work. Still co-written by
her father, Mohsen, there is a sense of awareness and determination in both
story and cinematography. There is a sensation of being proud of being a
woman, as the film spends a lot of time with her gaze and her shoes. As such,
Noqreh represents a new generation, that opposes, to a degree defies, the
former generation and its traditions: Not only by wearing her shoes, but she
lets her picture being taken and displayed public.
The film also is critical towards the “liberation” of Afghanistan. While the
Taliban has fallen, democracy is but a fantasy, as the country is without
infrastructure and basic needs as food and water. Makhmalbaf even satires the
situation thru a French soldier, who has huge problems communicating with
Noqreh and who states, that he is here for the good of the country, thereby
suggesting the military actions and presence by the west towards a democratic
society as naïve and pointless, which she underlines in an interview by
suggesting a parallel between the current situation and Rambo: “Democracy,
contrary to the claims of mass media, is not a project to be created overnight
by military action or a change of regime.”
Posters
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Theatrical Release: May 16, 2003 (Cannes Film Festival)
Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews
DVD Review: Artificial Eye - Region 2 - PAL
Big thanks to Henrik Sylow for the Review!
DVD Box Cover |
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Distribution |
Artificial Eye Region 2 - PAL |
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Runtime | 1:41:26 (4% PAL speedup) | |
Video |
1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio
16X9 enhanced |
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NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes. |
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Bitrate |
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Audio | 2.0 Dolby Digital Farsi, Khurdish and Afrikaans | |
Subtitles | English, None | |
Features |
Release Information: Studio: Artificial Eye Aspect Ratio:
Edition Details:
Chapters 12 |
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Comments |
There is nothing much to be
said about the presentation of the film. The colours are natural and the
picture is of usual standard as by AE. The additional material consists of an interview, which suffers from Samira Makhmalbaf speaking English. She obviously has a hard time expressing herself and it would have been more elaborating and better, if she had used her native language. It is still a nice interview, which manages to give us an insight in her approach to cinema and the text of the film. A little gem is the “making of” documentary, which is made by her little sister Hara. I really isn’t much of a documentary, more just a recording of Samira directing, but it shows how deep cinema is imbedded in the Makhmalbaf family. |
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