Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

leoperu I found "Beed-e majnoon", the younger, but in form and content more adult and restrained sibling of the famous "Rang-e khoda", very good, despite some minor flaws. But by chance, I did not enjoy it as much as I might have, because its heart, so to say, was revealed to me years ago through a chapter in "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek", a small book of essays by Annie Dillard. I would like to embrace this opportunity and recommend it to any reader of this who is not yet familiar with it and would feel concerned. A couple of pages where the author depicts the inner world of the blind who have regained their sight touched me deeply and for good. Thus I can't but look upon Majidi's film rather as an illustration to Dillard's essay than as an independent work of art. This is of course a subjective attitude not fair to the movie, since it offers much more than what's inherent in "Pilgrim". Apart from its obvious religious value which is something I can hardly judge (who else than "The Film Sufi" should know better ?), "Beed-e majnoon" is rewarding and inspiring from both psychological a philosophical point of view, let alone its visual beauty. Although New Yorker Video did their best to conceal it in their inferior non-anamorphic transfer, it still shines - as early as in the quasi-mirroring calligraphy of the opening titles. The image of our hero staring at his mirror self emerging in the glass door ; another one letting him slowly fade in the rearview mirror of his wife's car ; the whole sequence at the airport - not one of the following scenes, for me, could match this one ....Speaking about blindness as a theme for filmmakers, there's one more work to be recommended : Werner Herzog's early documentary about deaf and blind people in Bavaria "Land des Schweigens und der Dunkelheit". In short : a harrowing and enlightening experience !

Roland E. Zwick In the lyrical and touching Iranian drama "The Willow Tree," a middle-aged college professor, blind since the age of eight, regains his sight after undergoing a cornea transplant.Through the years, Yusef has learned to function in a world of darkness. He even long ago stopped blaming God for his condition (he went blind while playing with firecrackers as a boy). Having made his peace with his situation, Yusef is now suddenly confronted with the unforeseen mixed blessing of regaining his sight. On the one hand, he yearns to be able to once again behold the vast and myriad beauties of the visual world; on the other, he risks losing the sense of security and comfort that comes from living in a world that is real and familiar to him.Director Majid Majidi captures some of the visual sensory overload Yusef experiences when he is once again reunited with the sighted world, which includes seeing his wife and young daughter for the first time. And how will the change in his condition affect the couple's relationship - the roles each of them plays within that relationship, and the ways in which they interact with one another? For now that he is no longer dependent on others to get around and is free to do things on his own, Yusef begins to press against the tightly-bound parameters of his heavily circumscribed life, falling for a beautiful young student in one of his classes and becoming less willing to play the part of the uncomplaining, long-suffering victim to please his wife and mother who have found their own purpose and meaning in taking care of him all these years. Then Fate plays a cruel trick on him, making him realize that he can never be fully happy in either state of sightedness (Majidi doesn't cater to his audience's desire for an uplifting, happy ending).To emphasize the way in which Yousef experiences the world, the movie features a hyper-sensitive soundtrack filled with the amplified sounds of birds chirping, water gurgling, leaves rustling, raindrops falling, etc. The only real disappointment is the musical score, which is often lugubrious, soupy and overly-emphatic.Much of "The Willow Trees"'s success can be attributed to Parviz Parastui's subtle and wide-ranging performance in the lead role. As Yusef, Parastui runs the gamut from submissive introvert to railing despondent without hitting a single false note at either end.

elsinefilo Majid Majidi's Willow Tree tells the story of Yusuf (Parvis Parastui) who was blinded in a fireworks accident when he was eight. Though he has been deprived of light and brightness for so long, he has a lovable, caring wife and a lovely daughter. After 38 years of blindness, Yusuf has a tumor beneath his eye so he goes to a Paris clinic to get some tests. Doctors do a several tests and they do cornea transplant on his eyes. The man who has lived in darkness and gloom for so long can't wait for the bandages to be taken off in the morning and he removes them himself.After his eyes catch the light the first thing he enjoys watching is an ant carrying a tiny bit of food across the window bar which is actually a diligent worker, a servant of God which can carry something as big as itself and never protests and surrenders to its role that is cut out for itself. Parvis Parastui's performance as Yusuf who walks in a gleeful hesitation, in an unsteady childish hobbling down the hospital corridor without needing anyone for the first time after 38 years,is just a cinematic tour-de-force which can't be forgotten easily. After he is back in Iran Yusus tries to grapple with the new life he asked from God. Apparently his small paradise of four trees and a house is shattered by the perceptional difference he has seen in the real world and the understanding,thankful,spiritually protected world he had himself with God. The temptation creeps in and the serenity he had in his gloom disappears.He feels attracted to Peri (Leila Otadi), his uncle's young,ravishing,stunning wife.With a transformed sense of moral obligation,another day he overlooks a pickpocket snatching somebody's wallet in a public transport vehicle. Yusuf who seem to have lost all his connection with his God, with his comparative serenity estranges his caring wife and dear mother too.All alone,while his eyes starting not to respond to the transplantation he seems to have lost his sight again. He gets a letter from his the man he met at the clinic in Paris,A man who was gradually losing his sight because of some shrapnel in his head from the Iraq/Iran war. In the letter says the man: "Tell me what's worth seeing and I'll tell you what's not worth seeing.Ever since I've practiced not seeing, I've seen many wonderful things. How much have you been seeing? Are your eyes satisfied? Did you see the willow tree? I'd like to know if it still brings you luck?" Embittered by his own transformation, Yusuf finds the note he put between the pages of the Masnavi (by Rumi)on which he wrote:""I'm the one you deprived of the beauties of the world and who never complained. Instead of light and brightness, I lived in darkness and gloom and I didn't protest. I found happiness and peace in this small paradise. Are all these years of suffering not enough that you now want to cause me even more suffering? Will I come back from this trip to my loving family? Will this illness bring me to my knees? To whom should I complain about what you are doing to me? I beg of you to show me more compassion. Don't take my life away." Knowing that his biggest mistake was not knowing God well, he asks for a new chance hoping that God has not crossed him off his own book of compassion book and the diligent worker ant reappears. Majid Majidi could be a great director indeed but what you will remember after seeing this movie will be the unforgettable performance of Parvis Parastui overshadowing everyone else about this movie.

corrosion-2 This film can be described as a companion piece to Majidi's highly acclaimed Color of Paradise. In that movie, in which a father saw his blind son as a burden and not as a blessing, we (& eventually the father) began to "see" the world from the blind boy's view and in doing so saw a much richer, meaningful world. Here, the characters of the father and the son are embodied in a single person: Yusef who after 38 years of being blind regains his sight. What he sees, however, is quite different to what he "saw" as a blind man, and not necessarily more beautiful or rewarding. Majidi takes the viewer to a higher, more spiritual world and in doing so creates another masterpiece. Majidi's movies are visually stunning and have such a profound effect on the viewer that when we leave the cinema, we see the world in a different light. Parviz Parastoui, one of the best actors in the Iranian cinema and theatre, is outstanding as Yusef. Also worth mentioning is Mahmood Kelari's exceptional photography. As in all Majidi films, there are scenes which will stay with you long after the movie is over.