The Silence
(Sokout)
by Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Iran
Script: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Cinematographer: Ebrahim Ghafori
Editor : Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Sound: B. Shahamat
Cast: T. Normatova, N. Abdelahyeva, G. Ziadolahyeva, H. Ghassem, A.M. Mohamadli
Production: MK2 Productions, Makhmalbaf Productions
Distribution:
MK2 Diffusion
55 rue Traversière
75012 Paris
France
Tel: 0033 1.44.67.30.87
Fax: 0033 1.43.44.20.18
Mail: [email protected]
www.mk2pro.com
Year: 1998
35 mm, Colour, 77 min,
OV Tarsi, tTajik, Russian with French Subtitles
Venise Film Festival 1998
Khorshid is a nine-year old blind boy. He lives in a small Tadzhik village with his mother whom he supports since his father has abandoned her and left for Russia. Every day, he meets Nadereh, a slightly elder girl, who takes him from the bus station to the factory where he works. She is his eyes. Khorshid carefully listens to all the sounds around him: water, the street, music, anger, fear, beauty. It is this gift which helped him to be employed as a tuner by a the stringed instrument maker. At times, the sounds of life and the city guide him, while at times they make him lose his way, like that day when he missed his bus, taken away by a music he liked. It is the music of the world which teaches him life.
This is beautiful poetical film where, as Makhmalbaf said: "One can see the little blind boy as a metaphor for the Iranian new generation".
To be born blind, to live as a blind person in one's country...
