Country: Iran
Year: 1987
Duration: 95'


First Episode: The Happy Child. A penniless couple living in a shanty town south of Tehran bring their fourth child to light. In the obstetric clinic, the woman is informed that the new-born child will surely become an invalid if it is not well nourished. Because their three younger children are all ill, the parents decide to entrust their young son to someone who can nourish and take care of him better than they can.
Second episode: Birth of An Old Woman. A young mentally-retarded man helps his old mother who is mute and paralyzed. He is hit by a car and taken to the hospital. He returns home to take care of her again, but does not notice that she had died in his absence.
Third Episode: The Peddler. A criminal group of smugglers, who also supply goods for street peddlers, kidnap a young peddler while he is working because he had witnessed the killing of a friend of his, 'Abbas. The peddler tries to imagine a series of escape plans in his mind. He tries to escape, but does not succeed and is killed.

"The main theme of Dastforush is the human being. The first episode treats his birth and examines his being placed into the world. The second treats his life. The third treats his death and the abandonment of this world. The various people in these three stories represent only one person in reality. I had already used this procedure in my film, Este'aze, in which five characters confront the devil in five separate dreams. In substance, they represent one person only.", (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)

Biography

film director

Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Born in 1957 in a poor quarter of Tehran, Mohsen Makhmalbaf had to do more than a dozen of odd jobs lo earn his own and help support his mother between the age of eight and seventeen. When he was 15, he engaged in clandestine activity through a guerrilla group he himself had organized. Al 17, he was shot and arrested when trying to disarm a policeman and spent four and a half years in prison.
Released during the 1979 revolution, he quit all political activity and went in for literature and cinema. His published work includes about twenty volumes of novels and dramaturgy, film scripts and essays on art, some of which haze been translated into Turkish, Arabic, Urdu, Kurdish and English. With several scripts in addition lo the ones he had personally filmed, two documentaries and 20 movies edited by him, Makhmalbaf is the most prolific Iranian director of the last two decades.
His fourteen films made in as many years have invariably been, for one reason or another, controversial at home and abroad. The Peddler, The Cyclist, Marriage of the Blessed, Time for Love, Once Upon a Time, Cinema, The Actor and Salaam Cinema have so far been presented at 170 international film festivals and screened in 40 countries, with 22 prizes won among them. The awards include the top prize at the Rimini International Film Festival (Italy, 1989) and the East-West Award al the Hawaii International Film Festival (Usa, 1991) for The Cyclist; the First Prize of the Taormina International Film Festival (Italy, 1992), the jury's Special Award and the Fipresci film critics' award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Czechoslovakia, 1992), and the jury's Special Award at the Istanbul International Film Festival (Turkey, 1992) for Once Upon a Time, Cinema; and the Critics' Award (Sao Paulo, Brasil, 1995) for all his works.

FILMOGRAFIA

Film di finzione/Fiction Films
Tobe-ye Nasuh (Nasooh's Repentance/Pentimento definitivo, 1982).
Do cheshm-e bi su (Two Sightless Eyes/Due occhi senza luce, 1983).
Estèaze (Seeking Refuge in God/Rifugiarsi in Dio, 1984).
Baycot (Boycott/Il boicottaggio, 1985).
Dastforush (The Peddler/L'ambulante, 1986).
Baysilkeran (The Cyclist/Il ciclista, 1987).
'Arusi-ye khuban (The Marriage of the Blessed/Il matrimonio dei benedetti, 1988).
Nobat-e asheqi (Time of Love/Tempo d'amare, 1990).
Shabhay-e Zayandeh Rud (Nights on the Zayandeh Rud/Notti sullo Zayandeh Rud, 1990).
Ruzi ruzegari cineina/Nasseroddin Shah, hactore cinema (Once Upon a Time, Cinema/C'era una volta il cinema, 1991).
Honar Pishé (The Actor/ L'attore, 1992).
Salaam Cinema (Salam Cinema, 1994).
Gabbeh (idem, 1995).
Nun va goldun (A Moment of Innocence/Un istante di innocenza,1996).

Documentari/Documentare
Gozideh tasvir dar doran-c Qajar (A Selection of Images from Qajar Era/Una selezione di immagini del periodo Qajar, 1992).
Sang-o shisheh (The Stone and the Glass/La pietra e il vetro, 1993).

Cast

& Credits

Director, screenplay and editor: Mohsen Makhmalbaf.
Director of photography: Homayon Payvar (I ep.), Mehrdad Fakhimi (II ep.), Ali Reza Zarrindast (III ep.).
Trucco: Fateme Ardakani (I ep.); Abdollah Eskandari, Malid Eskandari, Ardeshir Iraneiad (II ep.); Abdolhamid Qadirian (III ep.).
Music: Majid Entezami.
Sound: Mohsen Roshan.
Cast and characters: I ep.: Zohreh Sarmadi (Hanieh), Esma'il Soltanian (il marito); II ep.: Morteza Zarrabi (il figlio), Mahmud Bassiri (la madre); III ep.: Behzad Behzadpur (l'ambulante), Jafar Deqan (il gangster).
Production company: Circolo artistico per l'organizzazione della propaganda islamica.
Foreign sales agent: Farabi Cinema Foundation, 55 Sie-Tir Avenue, 11358 Tehran, Iran, tel. +98-21-671010, fax +98-21-678155.
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