IFFR 2009 – Shirin
Movie: Shirin (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 2008, 92′) 
Date: Jan 22, 2009
Rating: 
(Great experiment, just a bit too long)
Plot: A classical piece of Iranian poetry has been transformed in a movie. The catch: we don’t see the movie, we only hear the sounds. And we only get to see the faces of the female public in the theater. The reactions of 112 women are shown in the movie.
Cast: Hard to say anything about the cast, other than this guy getting an overdose of beautiful Persian faces (those eyes..).
Visuals: Nothing to it: just tight frames of one woman with a couple of other people in the background. But.. Sometimes, the framing just works beautifully and you get caught in observing every single detail on the faces. And the shadowy faces in the background can also have an interesting effect.
Conclusion: Should’ve been a shorter movie, say 70 minutes. Couldn’t keep myself awake after an hour; could be just me, I know, but after a while you get a sense of monotony.
It is fun to follow a story without actually seeing it in front of you. It’s sort of a radio play on film, nice experiment!
