At Five in the Afternoon (Faces of Iran)

At Five in the Afternoon (Faces of Iran)

At Five in the Afternoon

Panj é asr Iran 2003 | Samira Makhmalbaf | vostEN+DE | 105’ | 35mm | Cast : Agheleh Rezaie, Abdolgani Yousefrazi, Razi Mohebi

►Prix du jury, Cannes 2003

With the Taliban ousted from the country, a young woman living in Kabul hopes to pursue a more open-minded education.

« Samira Makhmalbaf’s At Five in the Afternoon takes the viewer on a harsh, at times poetic journey into the heart of Afghanistan today, with pic serving as both an impassioned demand for women’s rights and a searing portrayal of a country left in ruins after its liberation from the cruel Taliban regime. This is not a guided tour, however: Viewers must gingerly pick their way through the young femme filmmaker’s sometimes naive and perhaps condescending viewpoint in a very loosely structured film. However, audiences can easily identify with the film’s heartfelt feminist critique, equally applicable to Makhmalbaf’s native Iran and many other Middle Eastern countries. Aided by its stunning visual imagery, the film should gain the 23-year-old director of The Apple new fans. » (Variety)

« Filmed in traditional Makhmalbafian family style, in which socio-political debate replaces conventional psychological realism. But here, as in Makhmalbaf's earlier films, the rhetoric is always leavened with off-beat, even surrealist humour. Even better, the dialogue, revealing as it will be for Western audiences, is eventually redeemed and transcended by the powerfully expressive images that the films of Samira and her father, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, have become known for. » (ScreenDaily)