Stray Dogs was named best narrative feature of the eighth Bermuda International Film Festival. Directed by Iranian Marziveh Meshkini, the film tells the story of two young children left to fend for themselves in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Murderball, from directors Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro, was recognized as best documentary feature, while the Bermuda Shorts Award was given to Goodbye, Cruel World. Les Choristes (The Chorus) picked up the Audience Choice Award; the runner-up was Mad Hot Ballroom. Seventy films from 20 countries were shown, while a special sidebar highlighted Iranian cinema.
- 3/29/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Screened at the Venice International Film Festival
VENICE -- Iranian writer-director Marziyeh Meshkini has created a gem of a film in Stray Dogs, the story of two kids and their survival in post-Taliban Afghanistan with both parents in separate prisons. Original and unadorned, it has some of the simple charm of Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief, the 1948 film it pays homage to at the end.
Meshkini has drawn astonishing performances from non-actors, especially the children who use their own names, the girl Gol-Ghotai and the brother, Sahed. They are both remarkable but no one who sees the film will soon forget Gol-Ghotai's captivating naturalness and striking features. Stray Dogs will charm every audience it encounters.
The film begins with an unforgettable sequence that is a match for the cinema greats. The two kids are among hundreds scavenging for scraps in the trashed desert outskirts of Kabul. The girl is anxious because they are late. But a cry has gone up. There's a dog, a small white terrier, being chased by scores of kids bearing lighted sticks. The two are caught up in the chase as the pup eludes the screaming pack.
The dog leaps into a dry well and its chasers gather round the rim, their flaming torches threatening a hellish death. The girl, her face smudged with dirt, her dark hair thick and stark, finds a way into the hole and rescues the frightened dog. With her brother, they flee as the flames are tossed down.
They are late because they need to get to their mother's prison where they are allowed to spend the night with her. Their mother wants them to see their father and beg him to forgive her for marrying another man after he left them. The following day, they go to the prison holding their father but he's not interested. When they get back to their mother's prison, a ghastly place of bleak stone, they are turned away.
Meshkini follows the pair and the dog as they seek shelter in a freezing and desperately unfriendly night and scavenge again the next day for wood to buy food. Gol-Ghotoi cheerily heats her slice of pita bread over cooking coals so that it might taste a bit like meat. Then she offers it to the dog.
They are caught in a terribly bleak existence but they develop a plan that will allow them to join their mother in jail. Having raised enough to visit a local cinema, they watch The Bicycle Thief and see how easy it is to steal something and get caught. Inevitably, life is not that easy.
There are many humorous scenes, however, including one marvelous encounter as Gol-Ghotoi engages an angry prison guard in a passionate discussion of whose life is more unfair. Meshkini's depiction of the life of these children is heartbreaking but there is a complete absence of sentiment. Instead, it offers a joyful reminder of the power of human fortitude.
Credits:
Director and screenwriter: Marziyeh Meshkini
Producer: Maysam Makhmalbaf
Executive Producers: Mohammaed Ahmadi, Fakhruddin Ayyam
Director of photography: Ibrahim Ghafoori
Set designer: Akbar Meshkini
Editor: Mastaneh Mohajer
Composer: Mohammed Reza Darvishi
Cast:
Girl: Gol-Ghotai
Boy: Zahed (cq)
Mother: Agheleh Rezai
Guard Atef: Sohrab Akbari
Angry guard: Jamil Ghanizadeh
Mad old man: Razeddin Sayyar
Grandmother: Maydeh Gol
Woman with burka: Ghomri Valad Amir
Rosary seller: Shah Mahmood Golbahari
Movie ticket seller: Emameddin Vakil
Cart owner: Akhtar Abdolaziz...
VENICE -- Iranian writer-director Marziyeh Meshkini has created a gem of a film in Stray Dogs, the story of two kids and their survival in post-Taliban Afghanistan with both parents in separate prisons. Original and unadorned, it has some of the simple charm of Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief, the 1948 film it pays homage to at the end.
Meshkini has drawn astonishing performances from non-actors, especially the children who use their own names, the girl Gol-Ghotai and the brother, Sahed. They are both remarkable but no one who sees the film will soon forget Gol-Ghotai's captivating naturalness and striking features. Stray Dogs will charm every audience it encounters.
The film begins with an unforgettable sequence that is a match for the cinema greats. The two kids are among hundreds scavenging for scraps in the trashed desert outskirts of Kabul. The girl is anxious because they are late. But a cry has gone up. There's a dog, a small white terrier, being chased by scores of kids bearing lighted sticks. The two are caught up in the chase as the pup eludes the screaming pack.
The dog leaps into a dry well and its chasers gather round the rim, their flaming torches threatening a hellish death. The girl, her face smudged with dirt, her dark hair thick and stark, finds a way into the hole and rescues the frightened dog. With her brother, they flee as the flames are tossed down.
They are late because they need to get to their mother's prison where they are allowed to spend the night with her. Their mother wants them to see their father and beg him to forgive her for marrying another man after he left them. The following day, they go to the prison holding their father but he's not interested. When they get back to their mother's prison, a ghastly place of bleak stone, they are turned away.
Meshkini follows the pair and the dog as they seek shelter in a freezing and desperately unfriendly night and scavenge again the next day for wood to buy food. Gol-Ghotoi cheerily heats her slice of pita bread over cooking coals so that it might taste a bit like meat. Then she offers it to the dog.
They are caught in a terribly bleak existence but they develop a plan that will allow them to join their mother in jail. Having raised enough to visit a local cinema, they watch The Bicycle Thief and see how easy it is to steal something and get caught. Inevitably, life is not that easy.
There are many humorous scenes, however, including one marvelous encounter as Gol-Ghotoi engages an angry prison guard in a passionate discussion of whose life is more unfair. Meshkini's depiction of the life of these children is heartbreaking but there is a complete absence of sentiment. Instead, it offers a joyful reminder of the power of human fortitude.
Credits:
Director and screenwriter: Marziyeh Meshkini
Producer: Maysam Makhmalbaf
Executive Producers: Mohammaed Ahmadi, Fakhruddin Ayyam
Director of photography: Ibrahim Ghafoori
Set designer: Akbar Meshkini
Editor: Mastaneh Mohajer
Composer: Mohammed Reza Darvishi
Cast:
Girl: Gol-Ghotai
Boy: Zahed (cq)
Mother: Agheleh Rezai
Guard Atef: Sohrab Akbari
Angry guard: Jamil Ghanizadeh
Mad old man: Razeddin Sayyar
Grandmother: Maydeh Gol
Woman with burka: Ghomri Valad Amir
Rosary seller: Shah Mahmood Golbahari
Movie ticket seller: Emameddin Vakil
Cart owner: Akhtar Abdolaziz...
- 9/10/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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