Yousef Saeedi is the hero of the film. Or rather, the anti-hero. He looks pretty goofy, but appearances can be deceptive. Yousef is not stupid; he’s a former student at university and also someone who doesn’t give up easily.
The film is set against the background of the turbulent and allegedly fraudulent elections in 2009 in Iran. Many students were arrested or stopped their studies. Yousef also had to go looking for work. He chose the risky profession of ‘loan shark’, and we follow him during his enervating and also comic adventures.
Abolfazl Jalili, who was Filmmaker in Focus in 1999 in Rotterdam, is a representative of the Iranian ‘new wave’ and he has remained faithful to this realistic school. As a documentary maker – always wielding the camera himself – he follows characters who are true to life.
‘Darvag’ is the name of a small green frog that lives at the top of a tree waiting for rain, with which the filmmaker wants to say: one day it’s going to rain again.
Film details
- Country of production
- Iran
- Year
- 2013
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2013
- Length
- 100"
- Medium/Format
- DCP
You may also like this
-
Rhino Season
A political indictment and an epic love tragedy by IFFR audience-award winner Bahman Ghobadi (Turtles Can Fly), with Monica Bellucci playing the le
-
My Stolen Revolution
The filmmaker fled revolutionary Iran; 30 years later, she seeks out other survivors when protests resume in Tehran. Emotional and personal.
-
Raining Ashes
A woman in jail dreams of the activist who writes her letters. Or is the imaginary relationship between prisoner and activist really the other way