"Ten" (Language - Persian) (2002) - Movie Review

A boy gets in a car. The viewers get the dash board view of him. The quality of the movie looks like it was made with a home video camera. The boy starts talking with the driver which the viewers do not see at this point. By the voice of the driver, the viewers identify her as a lady who is the mother of the kid. The boy converses with her and accuses her of being selfish. When I was watching this, my room mate happens to slip by and watched it for a while. After sometime, he told me with annoyance and sarcasm that I should take a home video camera and start shooting the conversation between us and maybe it would be a great film. I thought, “Why not?” “Ten” directed by the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami is the ten sequence of experience of a female cab driver in Tehran. As my thought, it would definitely inspire many upcoming film makers to shoot with minimal equipments and yet come up with an impressive movie.

As expected, there are no particular plots in this movie. This is pure experiment with respect to film making. The movie focuses more on the natural expressions and conversations which may not go well with all the audiences. It takes some immense patience at certain point of the movies to get the viewers concentration on to the film. This may seem frustrating but there lies more depth and detail in this movie. The film portrays the various issues prevalent in a society through the day to day life of a female cab driver in Tehran. This does not make it to take sides but rather brings out the contemplation and dilemma in everyone regarding the existence and relationships. Through the characters there comes out lot of problems which exists in the society regardless of cultural and geographical factors. The film takes the philosophical discussion of existentialism and counter culture which may astonish the viewers. If the viewers open their mind there lays the real truth of humanity. The unwritten rules defined either by the government or parents or dictators or the normalcy as followed for centuries and centuries are teared apart into pieces during some intense discussions.

This film definitely is not for a movie seeker who looks for entertainment and glossy factors. This film is for the viewers who are ready to stretch them out and work hard to the screen to grab some substance out of it. This is the weakpoint of the movie that it is not easily approachable. The intense conversations are interesting and astonishing. The film starts with kick out conversation between Amin and his mother. The content and maturity expressed by that kid is scandalizing and indulging. While one can wonder how a kid of age seven can brilliantly shed his opinions so clearly, it is partly due to the fact that the society treats him as one too, except her mother at times. The film shows the contrast of how the mother reacts to confrontation of facts. While there is no proof other than the kid’s words for the viewers, there is this natural tendency of believing a kid not able to lie when he is emotional and frustrated is what Kiarostami takes advantage of and puts the mother on the guilty counts. The viewers witness the same woman being very gentle, helping and understanding with other characters. Maybe she gave up on his son or maybe as she says, she wants to live her life for herself. The problem is that there is this human being she gave birth to which automatically becomes her shared responsibility with her husband. She wants his son to understand but Amin wants the same with her too. While he expresses his opinions clear and in detailed manner, the mother is not able to digest the harsh fact. Amin is caught up between the blame games of his parents and goes for the minimal destruction, his grandma and father. As a kid, his fragile mind works onto different clock work and is not able to comprehend the fact of his Mother being “irresponsible” as he states.

Kiarostami experiments this style of film making because he mentions during an interview that a video camera brings out the real emotion in a person which the 35mm camera sometime fails to. There are no background scores except for the real time traffic sounds and silences in the streets and highways of Tehran. The actors/actresses were guided on what to be enacted and Kiarostami left them with the dash board camera. Kiarostami would have given a detailed clear picture of what he wanted which is evident in the performances. Two main artists excel in this dry and complex movie. They are Mani Akbari, the female driver, the mother of Amin and Amin Maher as Amin. Both of them have the chemistry of getting on each others nerves as Mother and kid on the screen. It is strange that, even though I do not know the language, the timing and delivery of the dialogues are immaculate and terrific, which appeals at the right spots.

“Ten” needs patience and of all open mindedness. The discussion of the driver with the prostitute is the most philosophical and honest truth about the existence of humans as different sexes.

Roger Ebert, the famous film critic and whom I admire the most, said in his review as, “Anyone could make a movie like “Ten” Two digital cameras, a car and your actors, and off you go. Of course much would depend on the actors, what they said, and who they were playing (the little actor playing Amin is awesomely self-confident and articulate on the screen, and effortlessly obnoxious). But if this approach were used for a film shot in Europe or America, would it be accepted as an entry at Cannes? I argue that it would not.” While it is arguable about the selection, I was able to definitely admire most of the sequences and the conversations. It was not due to the fact that is experimental but it was interesting and thought provoking. The same concept if it would have been made in different country with right substance is still watchable and can be appreciated for its achievements. There are at times the movie gets on the viewers’ nerves for couple of segments. The main reason is that the emotions are real and to some extent it hurts the viewers. It hurts in an unknown way and makes them uncomfortable. This may seem as the success of the movie but sadly it drags away the curiosity and intent of seeing it further.

With couple of segments going over the head, “Ten” is the path breaking experiment which clearly conveys the points of women in the society as general. It discusses the various perspectives of needs and wants in a relationship. It explains the betrayal of men and liberation of women taken too much at different focal points. “Ten” is the tour into the raw and dark minds of the society in the most natural way. A bit too raw and natural that makes most of the movie goers shun away in the middle of it.