The White Balloon
Working from a script by his mentor, Abbas Kiarostami (subject of an SFF retrospective in 2021), Panahi transports us to the labyrinthine alleyways of Tehran's poorer south – where, in a few hours, Nowruz, the Persian New Year celebrations, will begin. Little Razieh has already put on her festive clothes, but she is sulking. The seven-year-old wants a new goldfish – one that dances, not one of the puny ones from her parents’ pond. Finally given the money by her mother, Razieh runs off eagerly. What seems to be a small quest turns into a documentary-style odyssey, almost incidentally revealing a microcosm of a country rooted in patriarchy, traditional gender concepts, exploitative working conditions and superstition.
Courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
Special Guests
One of the world’s great cinema artists, Jafar Panahi has been crafting self-reflexive works about political, artistic and personal freedom for the past three decades, despite being banned from filmmaking by the government of his native Iran since 2010. He is the only living filmmaker to win the top prizes at the Berlinale, Venice and Cannes, winning the Golden Bear for TEHRAN TAXI (SFF 2015), the Golden Lion for THE CIRCLE (SFF 2001) and the Palme d'Or this year for IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT.
Tickets
Sydney Film Festival acknowledges Australia’s First Nations People as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land, and pay respect to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, upon whose Country SFF is based.
We honour the storytelling and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia.
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