I came to know about this movie from the social media! What urged me to watch this movie was that it was from Afghanistan and that left me pleasantly surprised as I realized that they too weren’t apprehensive in exposing their creative side inspite of their conservative outlook and have effortlessly communicated with the most powerful form of visual art form amidst the ongoing instability in their land! Kudos for the effort!!
Directed by the Afghan-French writer Atiq Rahimi, this movie is an adaptation of the novel that was titled the same. The story is set in the war-ravaged terrains of Afghanistan where there is routine curfew followed by mayhem and chaos which puts innocent lives at stake. The narrative follows the life of a desolate woman (Golshifteh Farahani) who has to tend to her husband who goes into a coma after suffering a bullet wound in his throat. She also has to protect her toddlers from the Talibans who launch attacks every now and then. Apart from her external struggle to safeguard her self and family, as the days go by with hopeless grief and sorrow, it gradually allows her to vent out her inner struggles to her almost lifeless husband who resembles the “patience stone” (according to the Afghan mythology, a patience stone is one which would absorb a person’s grief and sorrow when confessed and then at a particular stage the stone is believed to shatter in order to relieve the person who confessed from all miseries).
The feeling of misery, hopelessness and grief was well etched out on screen and the director though takes a very feminist standpoint at times, tends to vent out his anger towards his own people who have suppressed women for ages! The role was played brilliantly by the Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, who not just brought her emotions on screen but had a big heart to deliver an overtly solid performance!!
We tend to travel along her life, the apprehensions which women face in such a conservative society that is devoid of any freedom, where objectification of women is a norm, where touching a prostitute is considered sin whereas raping a virgin is considered sacred - everything gives us a deep dive into the lives of these poorly treated souls whose cries have gone unheard through centuries!
Watch this movie for its slow, steady but engaging narrative, brilliant acting and beautiful visuals!!
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