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presents |
Secret
Ballot
(Raye makhfi) A film written and directed by Babak Payami.
Woman: Nassim Abdi. Soldier: Cyrus Abidi. Local people: Youssef Habashi, Farrokh
Shojaii, Gholbahar Janghali. In Farsi with English subtitles.
These notes, consisting of shortened versions of various critics' comments, are intended to provoke thoughts about the film's content and meaning. Best to read them afterwards if you prefer the film to make maximum impact, but they give away no major surprises.
In the opening sequence
of this absurdist comedy (a plane dropping a ballot box), Waiting for Godot
comes to mind: Beckett has been quite an influence on Iranian filmmakers. Shortly
thereafter, a woman arrives in a small boat from across the sea. Had she been
Godot himself the soldiers could hardly be more surprised, because this determined
young woman is an election agent charged with gathering votes on this sparsely
inhabited Gulf island. Reluctantly one of the soldiers, a dumb, surly type,
fulfils his duty by driving her in a battered four-seater scout car from village
to village collecting the votes of everyone over the age of 18.
Secret Ballot is a funny, touching road movie that simultaneously brings into
question the nature of elections, which precious few understand, and celebrates
the beneficial possibilities of democracy. Over the hours between her arrival
at dawn and her necessary departure at dusk for her more sophisticated, bureaucratic
urban world, the educated young woman learns some lessons about remote peasant
life (the subject of numerous Iranian pictures). She also builds a relationship
of grudging, unarticulated respect with the soldier, as she wheedles and cajoles
the potential voters, holding out the prospect of education, flowing water,
medical attention, better crops.
Philip French (The Observer) [Read
the full review here]
In writer-director Babak
Payami's comedy, absurdity reigns. Traffic lights operate in the middle of the
desert, women don't know who they're voting for because they're not permitted
to look at photos of "unknown men", and the female election agent
(Abdi) has to convince her soldier escort (Abidi) that forcing reluctant voters
to choose a candidate at gun point probably isn't the best way to keep democracy
alive.
Following his characters on a frenzied road trip through the desert, Payami
tries to raise some serious issues about Iran's electoral process, but the result
is a film that's about as subtle as a party political broadcast.... Hammering
home his political message - democracy is a blessing, but it has to be implemented
slowly - Payami squanders his vision of a Kafka-esque world in which people
believe that "whoever sent the orders knows what's best".
Jamie Russell (BBCi) [Read
the full review here]
Because we never find out
who or what is being elected, there has been much puzzlement among critics about
what the election symbolizes. I believe the message is in the messenger: The
agent is a woman.
"It's election day, don't you know?" the woman tells a bored soldier
assigned to drive her around. "There's a letter. You have to guard the
ballots."
The soldier studies the letter. "It says an agent will come, not a woman."
"I'm in charge here, mister. I have orders. You must obey or I'll see to
it you remain a soldier forever."
Strong words in a culture where the rights of women are limited. I was reminded
of "In the Heat of the Night," in which the whole point is that the
Sidney Poitier character insists on being treated with respect. This movie could
be titled "They Call Me MISS Election Agent." The plot is secondary
to the fact of the character's gender, and in Iran this movie must play with
a subtext we can only guess.
But what else is going on? Is the movie intended to show us (a) that democracy
exists in Iran, (b) that it is struggling to be born, or (c) that most people
find it irrelevant to their daily lives? There's a little of all three during
the long day the soldier and the woman (both unnamed) spend together. If the
woman is the Poitier character, the soldier is like the sheriff played by Rod
Steiger. He starts out strongly disapproving of a female agent, but during the
course of the day begins to find her persuasive, intriguing and sympathetic.
By the end of the day, we're reminded of the sheriff's little smile as Mister
Tibbs gets back on the train.
The director, Babak Payami, has a visual style that is sometimes astonishing,
sometimes frustrating, sometimes both. From the first shot onwards, the camera
pans with exquisite subtlety to reveal ... a bed? Can it be a bed, in the middle
of this wilderness? We see that it is. In this hot climate, they sleep outdoors.
As the soldier drives the agent around the island, events do not build so much
as accumulate. Mourners in a cemetery tell her women are not allowed inside.
Symbol quandary: (a) The fading patriarchy is buried there, or (b) women cannot
even die as equals? In the middle of a deserted, unpopulated plain, the soldier
brings the Jeep to a halt before a red traffic light. Symbol quandary: (1) Outmoded
laws must be ignored, or (b) in a democracy the law must be respected everywhere?
As the woman continues her discouraging attempt to involve indifferent islanders
in the vote, we are reminded of Dr. Johnson's famous observation in the 18th
century, when women were as much without rights in England as they are today
in the Middle East. After hearing a woman deliver a sermon, he told Mr. Boswell:
"It is not done well, but one is surprised to find it done at all."
Watching the movie, I reflected on a persistent sub-genre of Iranian cinema,
in which characters drive or walk endlessly through enigmatic landscapes, holding
conversations of debatable meaning. Abbas Kiarostami's "The Taste of Cherry"
(1997), a Cannes winner much prized by many critics, not by me, follows that
pattern. "Secret Ballot" brings to it much more interest and life.
Perhaps the lack of cities, names, relationships and plots provides a certain
immunity: A film cannot be criticized for being about what it does not contain.
Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times) [Read
the full review here]
In a minimalist way, using
non-professional actors on a remote desert island, writer/director Babak Payami
has made the gem of a movie. Just when you're thinking, "Here we go again,
an Iranian yawnfest in which nothing happens slowly," an absurd situation
arises, which is tackled with dignified seriousness.
Iofilm (The Wolf) [Read
the full review here]
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