The Gaze

This second feature by Sepideh Farsi focuses on emigration and people returning to their country of origin after years of absence; a very topical phenomenon. Hundreds of thousands of people have left their homeland for personal, economic or political reasons. The most difficult part of this is often the fact that the country they once left no longer exists; it has changed for ever. Esfandyar is Iranian and aged about 40, and living in Paris. Almost simultaneously, he receives two very unpleasant pieces of news: he is going blind and his father is dying. Esfandyar decides to return to Iran to see his father one more time. 20 years of absence have however had a great influence on the relationship between father and son; the alienation is abundantly clear. Only later does it become apparent that physical distance is not the only reason for this alienation. It seems that Esfandyar still has a lot of accounts to settle on his return to his parental villa in Teheran. He does not have much time, his sight is deteriorating rapidly. In a state of slight confusion, he tries to get his own back on those who supposedly betrayed him. 'Looking' and 'seeing' are the central concepts through which Farsi seeks to show the difference between objectivity and subjectivity, both in the story and in the visual language of the film. The blindness of the protagonists is a metaphor for the attitude many of Farsi's compatriots have to the recent history of their country. (LC)