A new and powerful voice from Iranian cinema narrated by “Deborah Young”

Charso Press: Deborah Young, critic of the Hollywood Reporter and Variety wrote in a review of the film “The World, Northern Hemisphere” by Hossein Tehrani, which was published on the “Film Verdict” website:

“The World of the Northern Hemisphere” has won the Asia Future Award from the Tokyo Film Festival and has also been screened at the Chicago Children’s and Youth Festival. The story of this movie takes place in the 1980s and after the corrosive Iran-Iraq war. “The World, Northern Hemisphere” depicts the hard life, but with hope, of a family without a father in Khuzestan province, which is a southern and remote province.

Hossein Tehrani’s first film is carefully made and in this film, he confronts the audience with well-made and paid characters. The complexities in the story, as well as the enigmatic final scene, confront the audience with a difficult decision. The high sensitivity of the director is evident in the details of this film and it shows that we are dealing with a talent that is worth following.

Little Ahmed (Reza Shohani) is a stubborn but brave and innovative child. In the short and wonderful introduction of the film, we see that Ahmed has brought a white pigeon to the market for sale, a pigeon that is fluttering.

Tehrani reflects on the colorful counters of shops with fish on them, on clothes, etc. Seeing a man who separates the head of Ahmad’s pigeon shows the superiority of the strong over the weak.
In the surprise continuation of Ahmed’s revenge and escape from the man who killed his pigeon, it seems that he looks exactly like his mother. A mother who is a village woman has suffered a lot. Difficulty behind which lies insight. Another mother is tired of working for others and wants to own the land herself.

The mother’s decision to leave Ahmed’s school and work on the land is to be blamed. But considering that Ahmed is not interested in studying, it seems that this is not a problem for Ahmed and his family. It should also be considered that this land and work is a family business.

The turning point of “Northern Hemisphere World” is where Ahmed finds a human bone while plowing the land with a tractor.

Although Ahmed’s mother angrily does not consider the bone as belonging to an Iranian and trivializes such an issue, Ahmed seems deeply upset. According to Ahmad, the bone belongs to a human body and his race does not matter. Apparently, the bone belongs to one of the victims of the recent war, because the story is told after the war.

The situation worsens when we learn that because there may be landmines in the war-torn cities, the authorities confiscate any land that is found. For this reason, Ahmed’s mother is trying to hide the bone. The bone that finally grips this family. In this film, Tehrani did not miss the gun on the wall (a term for the use of things we see in the scene and their proper use in advancing the story) and brings the bone into the story. For example, the story of Ahmad’s friend, who lost his father in the war and his body was not found, is a good message about the fact that all human beings are equal despite their racial differences. Ahmed’s capacity to accept great ideas like the above topic gives him greatness and dignity, and from a dramatic point of view, he acts on these ideas in the last scenes.

While making his screenplay, Tehrani managed and directed scenes containing clichés correctly and powerfully, for example in Nemat’s forced courtship, focusing on the reactions of Ahmed’s mother and the groom’s family, Tehrani made this scene and atmosphere convincing and believable. .

The filming of “The World, Northern Hemisphere” is realistic, documentary-like and unhurried. There are few close-ups and closed frames in the film. Emphasis on fields full of dirt and dust, by the film’s cinematographer, Morteza Moghdisi, gives us a surprising sense of realism, which is also enhanced by the minimal dialogues.

In the end, it should be said that Hossein Tehrani’s first feature film, which is a melancholic and calm film about poor workers and farmers, brings to our ears a new and strong voice from Iranian cinema.