MovieChat Forums > Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (2011) Discussion > Could someone who liked this movie pleas...

Could someone who liked this movie please explain this to me?

posted 12 years ago by david-wedel
37 replies | jump to latest

I simply couldn't get my head around the fact, that the entire film's plot could have been resolved, if she (Razieh) had just gone home, and let everyone know she was in a car accident.

I know that there are other dogmas and that they have different socially accepted ways to deal with such issues, other than where I am from, but it just seemed too inconsistent with the intelligence of the rest of the film.
The argument that "they were too pre-occupied with justice to see the underlying problems", is just another way to enforce the argument, that Razieh from the beginning knew she was in deep water, and thus could have saved both families a lot of face, by telling the truth from the start. And come on, saving face is the one thing that keeps this film's plot spinning endlessly.. So why not just deal with it from the start?

If someone could perhaps help with something else that I don't understand about this film.. In my opinion it didn't bring ANYTHING new to the screen world.
It was filmed regularly, with regular shots and angles, standard lighting and sound, a great cast (I'll give them that) fed with, what I presume is good dialogue (I think it's hard to judge before you actually speak the original language).
So where were those unique, defining moments that make a regular film stand out among the rest? I knew it had won the Oscar for best foreign film and a bunch of other statuettes, along with an AMAZING rating on this website, so I ask you now, users of this website, what makes this so special?

I genuinely want to know if I missed out on something, so please don't give me the "you just don't get it"-thing.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] heyz 10 years ago

What you missed was the cultural context of the film.

[–] the-fearless-america 10 years ago

the plot, classic but very deep for drama genre, you can't find this kind nowadays. simple storyline but it support the character to develop very deeply. as far as i know, in the last 5 years, all movies lacking the kind of director who can made such a storyline like this. powerful, high-moral, and deep storyline

the acting was so natural. it's hard to tell if they are on acting or in their daily life. no mistakes in expression. that naturality really convice the viewers to introduce, this is iran culture. we easily can find a person who extremely good in acting, but we seldomly find a person who extremely natural in acting.

the screenplay, simple but intense. easy to enjoy nowadays or even for the next years, because how they shot the camera is just simple with no hard angle. it will make this movie enjoyable for all ages criteria because of it's simplicity.

i can tell you so many other reasons why this movie extremely strong and had a good rating around the world (95 in metacritic).

this movie will become one from a few classic foreign-drama movie that ever made. and im sure of it, one or two decades from now, it will stay high among the tops.

[–] abe-austin 9 years ago

Personally I think the viewer having frustrations like this are intentional. For each character they all have the power to end this conflict, and it is painfully obvious what they SHOULD do. But in the end they don't. Because they are natural, flawed humans.
Yes, she should have come clean, but she was ashamed of losing track of the father, afraid of admitting to her husband she had been working, afraid of losing the job, and then afraid of accepting that she might be responsible for the loss of her child. Throughout the whole film she is conflicted about all this. It'd be so much easier to assume the car had nothing to do with the miscarriage and put all of her blame on Nader. But by the end her conscience gets the better of her.

[–] PoppyTransfusion 9 years ago

I don't know if anyone else has explained the problems in this statement:

I simply couldn't get my head around the fact, that the entire film's plot could have been resolved, if she (Razieh) had just gone home, and let everyone know she was in a car accident.

The problem is that her husband did not know she had taken the employment and for a man who was no longer living with his wife. You might think these details are minor but they are not to the characters in the film. So no, she could not tell him this and by the time he knows about the work via the miscarriage, he does not want to know she was hit by a car because that will not earn him the money he needs to pay his creditors.

In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer

[–] melinda2001 9 years ago

I think you're the only one to find the key point which is that the couple sees the money as the only way to pay Hojjat's creditors and keep him out of prison.