1-World Festival of Foreign Films
HOME      CHOOSE-A-COUNTRY      SEARCH      POST-A-REVIEW      CONTACT 1-WORLD

"The Peddler"
1986
Directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Shockingly forthright in its view of the social and economic problems of the post-Shah era, The Peddler uses a different cameraman and different style for each of three short tales set among the poor of contemporary Tehran. The first episode follows a kindly but naive couple who want someone to adopt their newborn daughter. The second, an astonishing mix of absurdist comedy and the supernatural, concerns a mentally unstable man who lives with his mother in a ramshackle apartment. The final section draws on the American gangster film to show the last hours of a peddler suspected of betraying his friends. Farsi with English subtitles.
95 minutes.