Where Is the Friend's House? (1987)

 Abbas Kiarostami's "Where Is the Friend's House?"


While watching Abbas Kiarostami's 1987 film "Where Is the Friend's House," I felt myself inextricably transfixed to the story of a young boy looking for his friend's house. The plot of the film is relatively simple, and yet the mundanity of an everyday-type problem unravels into a more complex observation of Iran life. 

The film centers on a young 8-year-old boy named Ahman, who goes to school with Reza, a friend of his. After watching his teacher chastise Reza for not writing down his assignment in his notebook, Ahman accidentally grabs Reza's notebook by mistake and takes it home with him. Adman pleads with his family to let him leave to return the notebook, but they are critical of him and tell him to do his homework and chores instead. Ahman leaves and spends the rest of the film frantically searching for Reza's house in the next village over.

Like I said, the plot is relatively simple. And yet, I felt the same sense of frustration and panic over returning the notebook that Ahman felt. The adults in his life and incredibly critical and harsh towards him, even completely dismissive all together. If Ahman doesn't return this notebook back to Reza, Reza will get suspended at the fault of Ahman. The valiant effort to transverse the countryside and neighboring village takes our audience on a journey of modern Iranian small-town life, along with the happenstance opinions about modernity through the eyes of the inhabitants. 

I was completely floored by this film. There is so much complex observations about the daily life of Iranian culture found within the confines of the story and Kiarostami's wrapping of this subtle narrative around the diligent and frantic search by this young boy is an incredibly creative way to distill ideas. I was completely on board with this boy's journey, along with his frustrations, fears, and anxious searching for his friend. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rio Bravo (1959)

Image
  Howard Hawks' "Rio Bravo" To conclude the filmography of Howard Hawks, I watched his 1959 western film " Rio Bravo ." I've got to say that I was expecting a lot more out of this picture based on all the praise for the film. That is not to say that I didn't like it, it was a fine time at the cinema (I was not at the cinema, I was at home). I can't say that I should have expected more, as I'm not entirely that big of a fan of Howard Hawks. Even his best film (to me), " The Big Sleep " is arguably one of the weaker film noirs that I've seen. " Rio Bravo " is a film that apparently is a response to 1952's " High Noon ," which was an allegory about Hollywood's blacklisting and McCarthyism. Howard Hawks and John Wayne felt the film was anti-American and instead made " Rio Bravo " to broadcast an alternative perspective in which the hero of the story doesn't shy away from justice. I personally ha...
Read more

King Kong (1933)

Image
  Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack's "King Kong" There are many post-Depression American 'box office' films that I have seen in my film studies journey. Most of these post-Depression box office films don't typically sit right with me. The films I have in mind are the gangster and monster films that swept the nation in the early 1930s. These films typically were meant to placate an anxious American audience. However, the depth to their thematic intricacies leave something to be desired. Even without this depth, the 'entertainment' aspect of these films were not very entertaining to me. However, there is one film that utterly surprised me, 1933's adventure epic " King Kong ."   The story is well-known. A group of filmmakers travel to a remote island to take advantage of strange and interesting natural wildlife unknown to the outside world. There they meet an indigenous people, all terrified of a large, monstrous primate living on...
Read more

The Big Sleep (1946)

Image
  Howard Hawks' "The Big Sleep" After watching Howard Hawks' 1946 film noir " The Big Sleep ," I have to say that it is not one of my favorite film noirs. That being said, it was definitely the best Howard Hawks film I've seen thus far. It did not have the typical dark ending that permeates the whole film with bleak darkness, which probably made it a lesser noir for me. In fact, it felt more like a 'studio noir,' if that makes sense. I'm not going to go into the entire plot of the film, especially because the entire plot is incredibly convoluted. In fact, this was a major strike against the film at the time of its release. Many reported that they could not keep up with what was happening. I've got to say that, for myself, this was the case as well. I found myself having to rewind to figure out what exactly I missed or who was who. However, upon reflection, the convoluted plot may only add to the feverish intoxication of the film.  Because...
Read more