At Five in the Afternoon
(Panj-e asr)
by Samira Makhmalbaf
Iran
Script: Samira Makhmalbaf, Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Cinematographer: Ebrahim Gafori
Editing: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Sound: Behroz Shahamat
Music: M.R. Darvishi
Cast: Agheleh Rezaie, A. Yousefrazi, Razi Mohebi, Marzieh Amiri
Production:
Makhmalbaf Film House
Exception Wild Bunch
Bac Films
Distribution:
Bac Films
88 rue de la Folie Mericourt
75011 Paris
Tel: 0033 1.53.53.52.52
Fax: 0033 1.53.53.06.73
Mail: [email protected]
www.bacfilms.com
Year: 2003
35 mm, Colour, 106 min
OV Dar Persian with French Subtitles
Jury Prize and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at Cannes Film Festival 2003
After the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, schools are reopened for girls. The main characters of the film, whose title is borrowed from Garcia Lorca, are an old man symbolising a fundamentalist Islam, his daughter-in-law who is the mother of a dying baby, and his daughter Noghreh, a young student yearning for emancipation to the extent of dreaming to become the President of the Republic. The part of Noghreh, fond of freedom in a country where tradition disapproves women, is remarkably played by a young widow, mother of three children.
After the events of September 11th and the turmoil of the media, Samira Makhmalbaf probes into the situation of Afghan people with a film both realistic and poetic.
"Cinema ignores boundaries…This film is not only about Afghanistan…Taliban are not only those who ruled Afghanistan for years. Taliban are the expression of our own backwardness". Samira Makhmalbaf.
