Alley Oop

Back in the days when broadband meant cummerband, I waited weeks to see this short film. It was being shown in San Sebastián as part of a season of films called Islam and Cinema. It kept being delayed because they couldn't get hold of a print. It is by Abbas Kiarostami, but I had never heard of him, or the resurgence in Iranian cinema. Instead I was attracted by some information in the small print - the music was by The Beatles! So I waited and waited, weeks and weeks. I saw a highly technical Egyptian film about mummification, an Algerian youth drama about the difficult choice between listening to rai music or consuming cassettes of speeches by radical clerics, and several other films I can't remember. By the time Bread and the Alley arrived I was in a frenzy, fully expected to hear the legendary Carnival of Light or some unknown psychedelic wig-out. It wasn't what I expected, but neither was it a disappointment. Now you can see it on YouTube for the price of a few clicks. I think my love for this film depends on how hard I had to work to see it (freezing cold, catching the last bus home, etc.), so it probably won't have the same effect here. The big screen helped, as did being part of a pretty large crowd, and sitting in an old theatre with a very particular smell. But I still think it's well worth seeing. It started me off on a love affair with Iranian film that lasted a few years, and which I hope will one day bloom again. Here it is:



I was reminded of this film by watching the strikingly similar The Red Balloon, so here that is as well, in two parts (short version, it says here). Watch it with a small child and marvel at the strong emotions it produces:





Bread and the Alley also reminds me of another Iranian film, The Apple, and that Norman Wisdom film, On The Beat, where he wants to be a policeman (after two minutes, I'm not completely mental):