Cheap Raye makhfi (DVD) (Babak Payami) Price

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Customer Reviews of Raye makhfi

If You Harbor Questions about "Participatory Democracy", You Just May Be a Fan of this Movie!!!
Watch for this on IFC!! Or buy a copy.... I just watched this on IFC, and I couldn't take my eyes or ears off this subtle little gem... <
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>If you harbor serious doubts about "participatory democracy" in all its forms, you'll be amused and stimulated by this modest but highly entertaining little film!!

Subtly Brilliant Dramatic Comedy
Billed as a comedy but actually just as much, or more, a drama, something I usually find wrecks movies I got expecting to be a comedy, diluting the humorous parts to the point of impotence and failing to work well on a dramatic level. However, this one of the rare 'dramedies' that hits its mark full on. "Secret Ballot" is an Iranian-made movie about the fledgling Iranian democracy emerging (the film, incidentally, was made before this year's democratic setbacks with the summary disqualifacations of most reform-minded candidates), with a female elections official (wonderfully played by Nassim Abdi) making the rounds with a mobile ballot box to collect votes from residents in a remote region of the Iranian coast and its nearby islands, with Cyrus Abidi as the soldier grudgingly compelled to drive her on her rounds. The humor is light but rich, the drama elements subtle but highly effective, and both raise up some issues without being politically overbearing. The terrain is beautiful and majestic, captured perfectly by the unique cinematography/editing style that uses a number of long, real-time shots with very few cutaways. When a little boat heads out to the larger fishing vessel a few hundred feet offshore it's done in real-time; you can see people getting on and off the smaller boat, faintly seeing them moving around on the the big boat, before the little boat begins to return to shore in the same shot. It might sound tedious but it's not, it just lets you experience the atmosphere and the ocean waves perfectly. The election worker is bright and full of optimism, either oblivious to the distrust of the the system she's working for or utterly refusing to be brought down by it, so steadfast is she in her belief that she's helping everybody move together towards a better future. It's the Middle Eastern Amelie! The soldier at first appears to be the portrait of sullen apathy, but very quickly it shows through that this is an intelligent individual, bogged down in quiet frustration of a life and a system that haven't worked out the way he would have liked. A large number of other interesting characters come and go for varying lengths of time, and it's up to the viewer to determine if there's also a subtle but powerful romantic angle here too. <
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> This is the first Iranian movie I've ever seen, and it's left me wanting to sample more, from different genres too, as well as movies from some other countries in the Middle East, both the Arabic countries and Israel. Very, very refreshing to see the Middle East in a vein other than what you see on the news, which seems to be just real-life violence and tragedy, while the rest gets ignored. A recommended buy.