21th march: New years eve in Teheran. As a lucky charm, children display a goldfish in a fishbowl. Razieh convinces her mother, to give her the last cash they have to buy a fish. In the filled city streets she looses it. In the attempt to gain it back, she will have many reencounters and learn much about the world.
The White Balloon is a movie, which offers a urban milieu with many human facets. In the movie, which was shot in the streets of Teheran, the Iranian director Panahi utilizes only one perspective, centred on the little Razieh. He goes with her, stands with her, follows her and leads the audience to see the facets of her live with their own eyes.
What follows from this identification, is the emotional rift to the world of adulthood, which Razieh approaches with a feeling of disinterest altruism and disappointed awe. How the children of a nation, which are reduced to servants of the state, which has made its foundations male. A tale, which is very sneaky just like poetry. With the lightness of a balloon, which allows a child to touch the sky.
Federico Schembri
