The White Balloon

For Razieh, it is all pretty simple --- the quest for the extra-chubby goldfish, and dealing with the twists and turns of achieving her goal. Every child has been a situation like this, and for those of us who can remember how it felt, this movie is a fascinating and deceptively simple tale.

The world can be a pretty scary place for a seven-year-old, and this movie brings that home quite powerfully. One feels especially the ominous presence of a not particularly benign government. in the form of an intimidating military presence.

The movie's success rests on the ability of the girl playing Razieh to deliver her lines while retaining that natural little girl quality. This she does magnificently. She is irresistably cute (and knows it) but also can be a real pain in the ass when she doesn't get what she wants. She is also overwhelmed by the world outside, but has enough resourcefulness to stick up for herself when she is being dealt with unfairly (as with the snake charmer).

She also conveys the power of loss, and reminds the viewer that just because an adult may regard something as trivial, it is nonetheless very real and very devastating to a child, and that the despair of loss for the child is as real as anything an adult might experience. The moment when Razieh is at the pet shop and realizes that she has lost her bank note --- where she realizes that she is really screwed and also in big big trouble --- is as moving a scene in the cinema as I have seen.

Some viewers may find life as it actually happens to be pretty boring cinema, and I suppose in the wrong hands it could be extremely boring, but not in this case. This has remained one of my favorite foreign films of all times. I look forward to my not-quite one-year-old daughter reaching Razieh's age, so that I can begin to appreciate the similarities. I sure she will drive me crazy just like Razieh would.


Boring   May 26, 2003
James Li (San Francisco, CA USA)
1 out of 33 found this review helpful

Boring. The whining little girl was just plain annoying.

Other Iranian directors have been successful in getting around the censors while telling an interesting story. This director has failed. People who insist on seeing this film as artistic are trying too hard.


Charmingly simple   April 4, 2002
BeachReader (Delaware)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful

I have become quite fond of Iranian films--many of them, like "The White Balloon", are charming and simply told, portraying real life without much of a plot or any special effects. It is interestingly done in real time.

Children seem to be the focus of many of these films, as they are in this one. The little girl was so appealing, despite her whining and pouting, that and I found myself aching for her when she lost her money and was trying to find it.

A good, slow-paced movie...glad I saw it.


SUBTLE AND SIMPLE   February 18, 2001
EriKa (Iceland)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful

The Iranian cinema industry is filled with charming films like this one. It is very subtle and understated... a tale of a little girl who wishes so much for a goldfish she sees when she and her mother are passing through the city together. She is convinced that the goldfish they see in the shop is fatter, more beautiful and superior to the goldfish they already have swimming in the pond in their courtyard at home. She begs her mother for the money to get the goldfish, but her mother denies it. The little girl then enlists her older brother's help to get the money. Eventually she succeeds in getting the money, but this is only the beginning of her adventure. At many times throughout the film, an odyssey through Tehran on Iran's New Year's Day (which I believe falls in March), the little girl and the money part company, and she has to struggle to find it and retrieve it. The story is charming and heartwarming. Iran's film censors are very strict about what they allow, so films like this are the standard fare. The films themselves are actually quite telling about everyday life in modern Iran, and I think these elements are the most telling of all. Unlike in western (particular American) cinema where you are beat over the head with parables and themes and lessons, these Iranian films just present a story simply and let you conclude whatever you like.