Ballad of a White Cow
Another exceptional drama from Iran spotlights the plight of a Tehrani widow.
Although ultimately I have a number of reservations about this film from Iran, discovering it was an exciting experience. One is impressed twice over within the first ten minutes or so. Here we see Mina (Maryam Moghadam) arriving by car at a prison to attend on her husband, Babak, and we quickly learn that this is a special visit because it is the day of his execution. Although we have seen Moghadam before (she appeared in 2013 in Jafar Panahi’s Closed Curtain), her role here is so subtly yet powerfully realised that the film’s opening segment is proof in itself that she is an outstanding actress.
This same short section of the film is also quite enough to make it evident that the filmmaking is no less remarkable and that involves Moghadam too. Well established as an actress, she is the partner of the director Behtash Sanaheea and acted for him in 2014 in the film Risk of Acid Rain. Here, however, as in the 2018 documentary The Invincible Diplomacy of Mr Naderi, she shares the directorial credit with him in addition to which both of them have been involved in the writing of all three films. In directing Ballad of a White Cow they have adopted an unorthodox style and have handled it with wonderful assurance. Save for two instances in which the camera moves (in both cases to telling effect), the camera is static throughout in emulation of Ozu. Such an approach can make for editing that distracts, but Sanaeeha and Moghadam pay special attention to the soundtrack which, eschewing a music score, uses natural sounds to aid the smooth transition from shot to shot. This is masterly.
After that splendid opening, the film moves forward to pick up Mina’s story a year on. She has applied for financial aid to help her situation as a sole parent bringing up a young daughter (Avin Poor Raoufi) who is a deaf mute. However, living in these circumstances in Tehran without a husband, Mina is looked down on and there is no change in that respect when evidence emerges belatedly that Babak had not been guilty of the murder for which he had been executed. Mina is determined to do all she can to exact a public apology for the injustice, but meanwhile she is helped by Reza (Alireza Sanifar). He is a stranger to her but he gives her money claiming that this is repayment of a debt that he had owed Babak, the latter having been an old friend of his.
As the film proceeds, it moves into unexpected areas and holds the interest but, while commenting on various aspects of life in Iran, the narrative doesn't quite sustain the impact of the opening. This is in part because some characters feel underdeveloped in the writing (thus the daughter's role is very subsidiary, the view given of Babak’s own family including a brother (Pouria Rahimi Sam) is left ill-defined and, when the son of one of the main characters dies, we realise that the detail needed about him for this to be fully effective dramatically is lacking). But for me the weakest moments of all are those which conclude the story on an unexpectedly melodramatic and ambiguous note – for that matter the sudden use of music by Schubert over the last scene jars with the earlier rejection of music. But, if these are weaknesses, Ballad of a White Cow nevertheless demands to be seen because the direction and Maryam Moghadam’s acting are both something very special indeed.
Original title: Ghasideyeh gave sefid.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Maryam Moghadam, Alireza Sanifar, Pouria Rahimi Sam, Avin Poor Raoufi, Farid Ghobadi, Lili Farhadpour, Pejvak Imani, Mohammed Heidari, Mohamad Ramezami Poor.
Dir Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghadam, Pro Gholamreza Moosavi and Etienne de Ricaud, Screenplay Maryam Moghadam, Behtash Sanaeeda and Mehrdad Kouroshniya, Ph Amin Jafari, Pro Des Atoosa Ghalamfarsaie, Ed Ata Mehrad and Behtash Sanaeeha, Costumes Atoosa Ghalamfarsaie.
Caractères Productions/Filmsazan-Mubi.
105 mins. Iran/France. 2020. US Rel: 21 October 2021. UK and US internet Rel: 10 February 2022. No Cert.