Cinema
Downpour
رگبار
Bahram Beyzai · 1972
Synopsis
Mr Hekmati, a young schoolteacher, is transferred to a school in south Tehran, a poor and conservative neighbourhood. On the first day he throws a pupil, Mosayyeb, out of the classroom, and the boy's elder sister, Atefeh, comes to protest; he falls in love with her. But Rahim, the neighbourhood butcher, wants her too, and the headmaster dreams of marrying his own daughter to the schoolteacher. To fill his hours, Hekmati sets about restoring the school's abandoned theatre on his own, while the gossip spreads.
Context
The first feature film by its author, the film was produced by Barbod Taheri, shot on a minimal budget and released in November 1972; it was a great success. Parviz Fannizadeh plays Hekmati, Parvaneh Massoumi plays Atefeh. It has been seen as both a sentimental comedy and a political allegory. The negative was lost, and it was restored in 2011 in Bologna from the only known print, with the author and Martin Scorsese's foundation, then issued by Criterion.
Who it is for
A film in Persian, in black and white, of more than two hours. It helps to know that the tone moves constantly from comedy to allegory, and that several questions remain unanswered.
Prizes and reception
Best Actor award for Parviz Fannizadeh at the Sepas festival; regarded as one of the founding films of the Iranian New Wave.